Rating: 3.5/5
Hooptober 5.0 | 5/32 | Anniversary Film 4/10 | Decades 3/6 | 70s
Corky (Anthony Hopkins) wakes his ailing mentor, Merlin, to tell him about his first magic show. Corky tells Merlin that the show went flawlessly while he gives Merlin his medicine.
Through flashback, we see the club where he performed — an open mic night full of Bob Dylans and Dolly Partons. Corky gets on stage with his deck of cards to a scattered and disinterested crowd. He breaks and screams at the crowd for not paying attention.
Merlin sees through the lie. He tells Corky that he needs to find the charm. If he can do that, he’ll find success.
They don’t care from heart, kid. They just want to be entertained.
One year later, Corky performs a sold-out show at the same club. This time, he does the trick again. A voice interrupts from the crowd, claiming to do it better.
Corky enters the audience to grab Fats, a sailor-mouthed ventriloquist dummy with a mind of its own. Corky tries to continue his magic, but Fats makes sex jokes and keeps the audience laughing. The thing is, Corky cannot control Fats, even off-stage.
Despite the premise, the film avoids (some) “Devil Doll” tropes. Corky has his issues that the movie uses the premise to dive into.
The film layers flashbacks into present-day scenes as Corky reflects on his upbringing and the one who got away, Peggy Ann Snow (Ann-Margret).
I’m not talking about puppy love — I’m talking about salvation.
Anthony Hopkins has that shy cuteness of an incel. He stresses me out so much. He pressures himself to avoid failure.
Ann-Margret is perfect as the doting, exuberant woman that an incel wishes he had. But she’s married to a guy with anger problems, so a boy freaking out on her is par for the course.
I like how the puppet looks like a caricature of Anthony Hopkins.
The movie runs out of creative angles, leaving a predictable outcome that takes too long. But the performances were entertaining enough to get me to the finish line.