I recently watched the French-American film ‘Now You See Me’ directed by Louis Leterrier, which delves into the world of stage magic while intertwining high-speed car chases, balloon animals and an overarching revenge plot. It spans across several film categories: thriller, action, comedy, but there were enough niggling little annoyances to get me thinking. Its downfall begins with the overwhelming cast of straight white males, with a token man of colour as a secondary antagonist. But by far most disturbing were the portrayals of the two female characters, who were of course straight and white. I’ll be focusing on the character of Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), in a self-indulgent critique of Hollywood’s misogyny, which I feel might have been overlooked in this film.
With an opening image that is overtly sexualised, Henley Reeves is immediately identified as FEEEEMMMAAAALLLLEEEE, complete with a sparkling leotard and sexist joke, “Every girl needs a pair of handcuffs,” (with a wink for good measure). This was an immediate turn off. Really? A sexually subordinate joke directly related to her identity as a woman to kick everything off? Unfortunately for Henley, it doesn’t get better.
Her first encounter with another main cast member, J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), blaringly screams that her weight is obviously a point of contention. How could it not be? I mean, she’s a woman. Duh. J. Daniel’s immediate barrage of insults results in her exclaiming that, “No one could fit through that trap door!” As her ex-boss, J. Daniel immediately compares her to an unshown superior magician’s assistant, “Rebecca fit through the trap door.”
Everyone knows this girl. She’s always thinner, infinitely better and entirely preferable over you. But as exemplified in the fact that ‘Rebecca’ has NO onscreen time, this girl is non-existent and serves solely to make Henley (and every other woman in history) feel inadequate. So far, Henley’s character revolves first around her gender, then her weight and next? That’s right, her sexuality.
Merrit McKinney (Woody Harrelson) begins his sexual advances towards Henley from their first meeting, and at one point he explicitly propositions her with casual meaningless sex. But Henley only has eyes for J. Daniel, despite his condescension, disrespectful treatment and seething jealousy after she dumped his sorry show and became a successful Escapist.
Correspondingly, one of Henley and J. Daniel’s most ‘romantic’ moments is when she falls through the air into his arms: a damsel rescued. His disgusting response of, “You really have lost weight,” just serves to reinforce negative body image and romanticised misogyny! Plus, it really drives the knife in for me, about how Henley’s weight is worthy of a RUNNING joke throughout the movie.
Finally, in Henley’s only moment of emotional depth (thanking her partners for their shared journey before everything might blow up in their faces), she is cut off mid-sentence thanks to – you guessed it – J. Daniel. In another supposedly beautiful gesture (of interrupting Henley instead of letting her express herself), he asserts, “I know. Me too.” Romantic? Or just egotistical and assuming? Oh, and just in case you wanted Henley to grow as a character and realise that she is a strong, independent, successful escape artist, with no need of J. Daniel to validate her… A close up shot of their hands poetically clasped is one of their closing shots. Ugh. The guy gets the girl, as per usual, even if he’s done nothing but be a fuckwit the entire movie. Despite my disappointment with Henley’s portrayal, Now You See Me is actually more subtle than most films in its sexism, which is partly why I wanted to draw some attention to it. Many could be distracted by the awesome street magic, Escapism, card tricks, and Mentalism. It’s definitely entertaining, the twists are unexpected and Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) is a gem. Although lacking in character development and interaction, I really did enjoy watching this film – it was clever and exciting, and I definitely recommend it. See if you noticed more than I did, or different things to me. The point is everyone should be critical of sexism in its more underhanded forms, so these standards aren’t unknowingly internalised.
As a parting gift, I’ll make Hollywood a promise: If female characters can stop having nothing to offer but their gender, weight issues and sexuality, I’ll stop illegally downloading movies. It’s possible… Now you see it, now you don’t. Right?
