ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

COMEDY DUO Mitchell and Webb seem intent on world domination. ‘Peep Show’ has just finished another series on Channel 4. ‘That Mitchell & Webb Sound’ has just started on Radio 4. Now, they make their first stab at film stardom with the mild-mannered ‘Magicians’.

Cinema has been a graveyard for the hopes of many a British comic, from Hancock to Lenny Henry. ‘Magicians’ isn’t as awful as something like the Cannon & Ball epic ‘The Boys In Blue’, but it is very slight, and even has the low-budget feel of television.

Harry Kane (Mitchell) and Karl Allen (Webb) are a successful magic act. At least they are until Harry discovers that his partner is having an affair with his wife. After an unfortunate accident with a guillotine trick, Harry is a widow and the partnership is over.

Four years later, Harry is reduced to demonstrating knives in a supermarket and Karl is struggling to reinvent himself as a medium. The £20,000 cash prize at an International Magic Competition is very tempting and so the estranged duo agree to reunite, always assuming they can remain civil to each other.

Although there is a decent plot at the heart of ‘Magicians’, it is presented with very little flair and all the supposedly witty banter tends to raise a modest smile rather than provoke a hearty chuckle.

It is a film of pleasing little moments that doesn’t quite add up to must-see big screen entertainment although there are some excellent supporting performances from Jessica Stevenson as Harry’s eager new partner and Peter Capaldi as a wonderfully scathing compere.

Nationwide release

Director: Andrew O’Connor
Stars: David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Jessica Stevenson, Darren Boyd, Peter Capaldi
Screenwriters: Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain
Certificate: 15
Running time: 90 mins
Country: UK
Year: 2007

© Allan Hunter, 2007