Tragic more than Magic
Sara (Emily Browning) is heading down to Chile to spend time with her boyfriend Agustín (Agustín Silva) and his friends, including Brink (Michael Cera) an American whose father is involved in politics. Joining Sara is her friend Alicia (Juno Temple) a timid woman who is less than happy when Sara has to return to the city for a few days leaving her with these strangers who speak Spanish most of the time. As time passes and Alicia starts popping pills to try and sleep she starts to act strangely as sleep deprivation causes her to become afraid and erratic.
I managed to watch "Magic Magic" right through to the end, some thing I didn't think I was going to do because right from the word go this movie was a slog. Now I am sure there are those who will find "Magic Magic" an entertaining movie but to do so I would say you need to be a huge fan of indie cinema which isn't focused on being entertaining in the more mainstream way.
So why was "Magic Magic" such a slog for me? Well one the storyline of Alicia basically losing it over the space of a few days through pill popping and sleep depravation, caused by her struggle to feel comfortable around strangers is simply not that engaging. Yes this story reaches a big ending but the journey there as we watch Alicia's behaviour become more and more erratic is not that interesting even when you have scenes of the juvenile Brink winding her up in a mean way. On the subject of Brink I can only say that Michael Cera was completely wrong for the part and from the minute we meet him he is annoying, although every single character in this is annoying.
What this all boils down is that if the sound of watching an indie movie about someone losing grip on reality sounds entertaining then "Magic Magic" might just be your thing. But if that sounds like something you would chose to watch paint dry instead of then give it a miss.
