A few years ago, my family and I decided to see The Amazing Kreskin at a local theatre. An elderly man with thick-rimmed glasses, Kreskin told anecdotes of acquaintances who were famous in the 1970s and played songs on the piano, but his main act-and the reason for the packed theatre- was mentalism. Kreskin would put audience members in a trance, read their minds and find hidden objects in the theatre. Although Kreskin was a little dorky, he wowed the audience with his mentalism, and I was hooked.
Since seeing The Amazing Kreskin perform, I’ve always been intrigued by mentalists. Earlier this year, I interviewed Haim Goldenberg from the Canadian show GoldMind for TVGuide.ca, and found his act mind-boggling. Just how does The Amazing Kreskin and Haim Goldenberg do it? Mentalism must be a trick, I thought; both claim that it’s not.
Home for the holidays, I decided to rent The Great Buck Howard, starring Colin Hanks, John Malkovich and Emily Blunt. Like The Amazing Kreskin, The Great Buck Howard visits small towns across the country where he is admired by townsfolk. He is entertaining and exciting, baffling the audiences with each act. Although cheesy, audiences adore The Great Buck Howard, just as my family and I adore Kreskin.
Unhappy in law school, Troy Gable (Hanks) drops out to become a writer, but applies for a job in showbiz to pay the bills. The job turns out to be assisting The Great Buck Howard (Malkovich), a mentalist once popular in the 1970s. Travelling with Buck Howard to small American towns, Gable finds himself astonished by Howard’s ability but frustrated with his erratic behaviour. Topping it off, Troy’s law-enthusiast father (played by Colin’s actual father, Tom Hanks) doesn’t know about his son’s new job.
The Great Buck Howard isn’t the star he once was, dribbling on about Johnny Carson and George Takei, friends from his heyday. But all that is about to change with his newest act: putting “hundreds” of people to sleep. Publicist Valerie Brennan (Emily Blunt) reluctantly visits to get media coverage for Howard’s act and ends up falling for Troy, much to Howard’s annoyance.
From his cheesy songs to mind-boggling numbers bit (asking an audience member to write down a number and the mentalist saying exactly what that number was), my family and I found The Great Buck Howard to be a fictionalized version of our favourite mentalist, The Amazing Kreskin. When Buck Howard told the audience to hide his cheque while he waited in another room-returning to bump into audience members as he searched for the money-my family realized that this film must be a take on Kreskin, as this was his main act. At the end of the film, we were quite excited to learn that the film was in fact based on The Amazing Kreskin. Turns out, writer-director Sean McGinly worked as Kreskin’s road manager.
The Great Buck Howard is an interesting film for the whole family. The amazing cast and interesting story make this a fun watch and I certainly recommend renting it. For those yet to see a mentalist perform, I suggest buying tickets before renting this movie, as watching a mentalist perform adds to this film experience.