Magic Mike

My favorite moment in Magic Mike came when the audience groaned when the point finally came when they realized this wasn't what they were expecting. Most people familiar with Soderbergh's work knew from the earliest mentioning of the plot that it was going to be a character study, not an over-the-top soft-core porn for chicks.  Unfortunately most of the crowd that gathered for my showing were people believing the latter.

The plot is virtually irrelevant, as it generally has little to add, it just exists to pace the film.  That being said, Mike, a decent Tatum, is talented stripper (drawing experience from his previous job) who's seemingly biding his time while he works towards starting his own custom-made furniture company.  Fair enough.

Stripping at night leaves Mike, well, all day to do something else, like tile roofs.  It's here, on the roof, where Mike meets Alex who's a seemingly decent dude who needs work.  For whatever reason Mike carries him along and eventually ends up at Mike's strip club owing him a favor.  I honestly don't remember why.  Long story short, the club needs an extra performer, and low and behold we've got Alex.  Mike and Alex become friends, Alex's sister Brooke (whose acting bothered me throughout) enters and we're off on some weak romance side-plot. Even though it feels sloppy, irrelevant and, well dull, it serves its purpose without ever being terribly distracting.

I never thought I'd say this but, McConaughey delivers a genuinely powerful and convincing performance. He plays the owner of the night club, and the sort of mentor/coach of the dancers.  While he's on stage giving the warm-up speech before the shows, he's magnetic, captivating, energetic.  Later in the film, when things aren't going so perfectly in the stripping world, McConaughey and Tatum have an argument, during which McConaughey is forceful and intimidating.McConaughey's performance is without a doubt the strong point of the film, and likely what ultimately makes the film worth your time.

Outside of McConaughey I wasn't impressed with many of the performances.  Cody Horn's inability to be believable was incredibly distracting. Then there's Tatum, whom I've generally never cared for.  I can say that I respect his effort and progress, but he isn't quite there, and I don't know if he has the talent to match his reputation.  Is reputation the right word?  He's great in the stripping scenes because well...he stripped before he made it as an actor, and it shows.  In the scenes where he's expected to carry the dramatic weight, he's very hit or miss, mostly miss. Olivia Munn is in the film for some unexplainable reason.  Her character adds virtually nothing to the film, she's just sort of...present.

Between McConaughey and the dancing scenes, the movie can be quite fun as the scenes are quite well done.  No, they don't get out of hand like so many women seem to hope, and no they're not difficult to watch while being straight.  Soderbergh's stylistic approach and snappy editing work well for those scenes, and while working with talented dancers, there's not much to dislike.

Much of the film reminds me of The Girlfriend Experience, Soderbergh's experimental film starring real-life porn star Sasha Gray.  Many of the low-angled shots with background objects just creeping into frame out of focus took me back to that film.  The performance Soderbergh managed to get out of Gray I would compare to the performance by Tatum.  Both are working in roles in which they're at least somewhat familiar, without being too convincing when stepping outside of it.

The bottom line is to know what you're expecting.  If you're here looking for a wild girls-gone-wild film, you're going to be let down.  If you can sit back and enjoy Soderbergh's approach to the stripping world, you'll be fine.

B-