Movie Reviews

Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Review in a Hurry: The Great Buck Howard is a shabby little comedy about a has-been magician struggling to jump-start his career. Even Hollywood heavyweight John Malkovich can't give this overly cute movie the vitality it needs to wow the crowd.

The Bigger Picture: Malkovich is an institution. He's so agile and refined that he can take a measly role and make it magical. But writer/director Sean McGinley's cutesy-wutesy direction (messy montages, dizzying swirls and zooms) and cheesecake script constrict the dynamo actor—never allowing his delusional character to reach full-tilt mania or punishing defeat. Here Malkovich is also enclosed by flat characters, who too often drag a great concept down to sitcom-level humor and grief.

In a dated, ill-fitting tuxedo, Buck Howard (Malkovich) is the king of the third-tier magician circuit, playing to half-filled dingy community centers in podunk towns. Though his show lacks any type of glitz, Howard hires law-school dropout/wannabe writer Troy (Colin Hanks) as a personal assistant to help him schlep to bingo parlors and Elks Lodges across America.

Along the way, Buck becomes an unlikely sage and teaches Troy, the sad, young literary man, all types of life lessons that surely the boy could have never learned in a pampered law school.

Hanks seems green and stiff squaring off against Malkovich, and the mismatched duo lack any kind of chemistry. Emily Blunt, however, shows up as a press liaison and gives the dreary flick a bit of pep. Her exchanges with Buck are savory.

When Hanks and Blunt shack up in a hotel room one night, Hanks bemoans his great malaise. Blunt responds, "That really turns me on, that whole existentialist thing." Me too. But sorry, sister, you're in the wrong movie.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Buck Howard does have a couple of awe-striking tricks up his sleeve. The few moments in the movie where he's actually allowed to perform them are tender and stir up real feelings of wonder.