Let
me begin by saying that my decision to see Magic Mike was
rather forced. It was the only film showing at my local cinema that I
had not seen and, knowing that you, my loyal readers, would be up in
arms (or hugely thankful) if I didn't do a review this week, I
thought I'd have to go along on my own and embarrass myself by
watching a film about guys taking their clothes off. Magic
Mike stars Channing Tatum as
Mike, a stripper at the Xquisite club which is run by Dallas (Matthew
McConaughey). Mike is trying to save enough money to get his handmade
furniture business off the ground and befriends nineteen-year-old
Adam (played by Alex Pettyfer) who, down on his luck and generally
not going anywhere in life, sees stripping as an exciting way to get
women, status and cash. But, as with all exploitation films of this
type, things aren't as glamorous as they first seem.
This
plot is as well-worn as they get and you've definitely seen it all
before. The love interest between Mike and Adam's sister, Brooke
(Cody Horn) is predictable and safe and certainly doesn't shock in
any way. This is, however, no bad thing. A screenplay by Reid Carolin
creates characters that are deep, meaningful and multi-faceted. The
audience care about their predicaments and their back-story and the
film's director, Steven Soderbergh, has done a great job of drawing
fantastic performances from Tatum in particular. I was originally
unconvinced by Tatum in the early stages of his career and felt that
his on-screen presence amounted to little more than eye-candy. Magic
Mike, however, has changed my
mind and demonstrates the huge emotional range that Tatum is capable
of. Soderbergh's lingering close-ups on Mike as he ponders his future
backstage at the club really helped the audience to engage and care
about his character. McConaughey put in a great and funny performance
as the club's owner and Pettyfer was perfectly credible as the
uninitiated youngster. Only Cody Horn left me feeling slightly
unconvinced but on the whole, her portrayal of concerned sister was
fine.
If
you're a guy and you see this film, I guarantee you will leave the
cinema feeling rather inadequate. The stripping scenes
were...erm...nicely done and there was certainly no shortage of
rippling male torsos. I shudder to think about the number of gym
hours that had to be put in by the cast. The cinematography was
effective and distinctive and helped create a world which was
attractive on the surface but which had a sinister undercurrent. Had
the film been solely stripping sequences with a flimsy surrounding
narrative, its female target audience would have been the only people
singing its praises. But Magic Mike works
because it had substance behind the innumerable of shots of male
buttocks. The lives of the strippers off-stage was the film's main
focus and, as such, there was something for the guys in the audience
as well as the girls. I did feel that the film's darker issues were a
little under-developed but they were, nevertheless, still engaging.
As
a portrayal of masculinity (or, at least, one facet of it), Magic
Mike is an enjoyable escapade
and I was, on the whole, pleasantly surprised. The film succeeds
because of its engagement with darker issues and focus on the
characters themselves, rather than simply being a chick-flick about
good looking guys taking their clothes off in all manner of ways.
Sure, some people will go and see this film simply to see a naked
Channing Tatum. But for guys, there's definitely something more to
take away from this film than simply a feeling of physical
deficiency. Take my advice, though. See it with someone else,
otherwise you will look like a total weirdo like I did. The things I
do for this blog...
Clapperboard Rating: * * *
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