"Making Morality Disappear"
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What You Need To Know:
The most difficult problem with this movie is that it isn’t directed or edited by a skilled storyteller. Attempting many genres such as fantasy, comedy and crime drama, it fails to have a concrete theme or purpose. The acting is better than average, but the actors can’t rise above the aimless script. The morals of this movie vanish into thin air. Slight-of-hand magic and real magic (or occultism) are both endorsed. With a problem script, little known talent, unsympathetic characters, and a nameless director, this movie may practice a disappearing act at America’s theaters
Content:
(OOO, Ro, Ho, LL, VV, S, NN, A, D, M) Occultic, magical worldview with romantic & homosexual elements; 16 obscenities & 6 profanities; moderate violence including one shooting resulting in death, man kicks dog, woman burns man’s face, threats with knives, & punching; homosexual men kiss; full male nudity suggested where man is exposed before a whole audience; alcohol use; smoking; miscellaneous immorality including stealing, vomiting, image of rabbits mating, & endorsement of magic
More Detail:
ROUGH MAGIC is a unintentionally silly, uneven mishmash of genres produced on a very low budget and having a no-name cast except for Bridget Fonda. Containing no clear theme or premise, this movie tries very hard to be a workable and entertaining mystery set in Mexico, but fails on every count except for some snappy dialogue.
Bridget Fonda plays Myra, a beautiful magician’s assistant, living in Los Angeles in the 1950’s. She enjoys her work but is looking forward to marrying Mr. Cliff Wyatt (D.W. Moffett), an aspiring politician and heir to his family’s uranium fortune. She quickly finds out that Cliff is a cad, marrying her only for political gain though he fears their betrothal. One day, backstage, a prank goes wrong, and Cliff unintentionally kills the magician. Myra has taken a picture of the murder and escapes to Mexico.
In Mexico, Myra meets Doc Ansell (Jim Broadbent), a street hustler selling snake oil to the unsuspecting townspeople. Doc knows that a magical formula exists which will provide powers for all that drink of it. Doc persuades Myra to climb a mountain and meet a mysterious shaman woman to get the magic recipe. Meanwhile, Cliff hires a private eye, named Alex Ross (Russell Crowe), to track and find Myra. Alex and Myra meet, and before long, they are talking to each other like private eyes and women do in old film noire movies. They also fall in love.
Alex, however, is faithful to his employer and reveals Myra’s whereabouts to Cliff. Cliff flies down to Mexico in his private plane, meets Myra who has turned into a sort of witch with powers and demands that she return to California. Myra begins to exercise, not slight of hand tricks, but real magic in order to get her own way, resulting in comedy and tragedy.
The most difficult problem with this movie is that it isn’t directed or edited by a skilled storyteller. Attempting to include many genres such as fantasy, comedy and crime drama, it fails to have a concrete theme or purpose. The acting is better than average, but the actors can’t rise above the aimless script. The best part of the movie is the snappy dialogue between Myra and Alex. The worst part of the movie occurs when the story becomes illogical, causing the audience to laugh unintentionally. At one point, Myra turns a man into a sausage, a dog speaks and a man unexpectedly develops a sexual attraction to another man.
The morals of this movie vanish into thin air. Slight-of-hand magic and real magic (or occultism) are both endorsed. Thankfully, this movie doesn’t do a good job of convincing the audience to practice these dark arts. Myra, though a heroine, is also seen as cold and heartless, even brutal when she burns a man’s face with flaming alcohol. With a problem script, little known talent, unsympathetic characters, and a nameless director, this movie may practice a disappearing act at America’s theaters.
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