For those of you who scan speedily to the bottom of reviews to see if a film is worth seeing — don’t worry; I always do it myself — I thought I would do you a favour and put the last paragraph first, as follows:
Is Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike worth seeing? Yes. But also ‘no’. But mainly ‘yes’. So it’s a ‘yes’ with some ‘no’ caveats. I can now see this isn’t so helpful. Best scan, I’m afraid. Still, at least you know I’m on your side.
Set in the world of male strippers, and written by the actor Channing Tatum, who has said it is loosely based on his stint as a stripper in Hollywood when he was 18, there is more to Magic Mike than meets the eye, even though, ladies, what does meet the eye isn’t exactly unpleasant. There are waxed abs, gyrating pelvises, pumping hips, ripped biceps and thrusting groins. Honestly, I’ve never had so many thrusting groins shoved in my face, and I’ve been round the block a few times. The thing is, though, it isn’t actually sexy, which may be Magic Mike’s point. The film starts as great fun but then goes awfully dark, perhaps like the life itself. Whether male or female, making money by allowing strangers to touch your bits and stuff dollar bills into your g-string is, says the film, degrading, and will eventually degrade your soul. It is not the route to self-respect. Magic Mike may even be the opposite of The Full Monty. It’s The Empty Monty, if you like, and still The Empty Monty, even if you don’t like. I may be on your side, but I’m in charge here and what I say goes.
The film is set in Florida and opens at the Xquisite club with its owner and MC, Dallas, as played by Matthew McConaughey. Now, normally I would run a mile from Matthew McConaughey, who has starred in any number of hateful rom-coms, yet he is blinding in this. He writhes. He gyrates. He whips up the audience to hysterical cheering as he introduces ‘the cock kings of Tampa!’. His fake tan even makes sense, for once. He is the epitome of capitalist showbiz sleaze, and holds it all together. He is to this film what Joel Grey was to Cabaret; which isn’t something you ever say lightly.
Anyway, Dallas’s main man, as far as The Cock Kings of Tampa go, is Mike, played by Tatum himself. Tatum has earned himself the Hollywood nickname of ’Mr Potato Head’ for his jug-eared lumberingness, but he is terrific. He has a charismatic gentleness to him, a dreamboat smile, and a way of indicating he has a soft centre. If the sex roles were reversed, he’d be the tart with a heart, and with a dream. He works on a construction site by day, strips by night, yet dreams of making artisan furniture.
Meanwhile, he takes a young college dropout under his wing. This is Adam (Alex Pettyfer), whom he shoves out on stage, and whom women instantly love. Adam’s protective sister, Brooke (Cody Horn), does not approve of Adam’s new career, but Adam is smitten, and quickly adopts a wild lifestyle of booze, drugs, and so on and so forth.
OK, the good things: the choreography and routines are sensational. Tatum can seriously move. There are some sublime comic moments — Adam being taught to dance raunchily, for example. It is refreshing to see a film in which males are the sex objects, for once. And the no’s? Some things simply don’t ring true. How can the troupe keep coming up with sensational routines when they never seem to rehearse? Why is Mike paying out for a fab apartment and car when he is so desperately trying to save?
But these are mere quibbles compared to the main problem, which is the narrative journey itself. Halfway through, or thereabouts, I started thinking, ‘Oh oh, this is going to turn into a conventional morality tale,’ and you know what? It did. This is a fallen-woman-redeemed movie, starring a Mike and, in this sense, it’s drearily predictable, as is the romance between Mike and Brooke. She is the only woman immune to his charms, so is the only one he is seriously interested in. (This staple of Hollywood is, by the way, known as The Reluctant Romance scenario.) All I am saying is that I was disappointed in where the film went, and had hoped for something newer and sharper. So it’s a yes, with a bit of a no. But you know that already, I think.
Comments