TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

Fresh off his Oscar-winning film, Michael Keaton co-stars in Tom McCarthy's excellent journalistic drama about the Boston Globe's investigation into a massive ring of child-molesting priests. I say co-stars because this is truly an ensemble piece; though Mark Ruffalo's Mike Rezendes and Keaton's "Robby" Robinson probably have the most screen time, it is refreshing to see a film so dedicated to the delivering of its story that there is no main character. The main character is the horrifying tale brought to life by the year's best ensemble and diamond-solid screenplay. The film eases you into the subject matter, though. It doesn't startle you with a priest wagging a finger towards an alter boy: the subject is serious and the film too grave to wander into such territory. Tom McCarthy (who also wrote the story to Up , how cool is that) approaches the film journalistically. He gives you its key players: in this case Rezendes, Robinson and Sacha Pfieffer...

Let me confess my full love of and practice of magic before I continue this review. Magic, well for me mostly card tricks, was a huge part of my life in fifth grade. I got my friends and I to pull them off, amazing (or at least slightly surprising) my peers and adults who were patient enough to tolerate as I carefully balanced where their card was going to be. I even performed a card trick (with a deck of Power Ranger cards, no less) for my sixth grade talent day. Of course, as seventh grade hit, puberty pulled off the evilest trick on me: making my love of card tricks disappear. So I've always been enamored with magic, especially the act Penn & Teller, who aren't afraid to show you how some of their tricks are performed. Unlike Penn & Teller, or me at my sixth grade performance, "Now You See Me" doesn't blow you away with the big reveal. It leaves you confused and mad you sat down for such a long...trick. The Hollywood dazzle, and product placements (...