"Now You See Me, Now You Don't" Review - Written by TonyD

“Now You See Me, Now You Don’t”
2005
*** out of ****
Director: Attila Szasz
Cast: Dora Letay, Emo Fekete, Vitez Abraham


“Now You See Me, Now You Don’t” is a strange film. It’s certainly one that I’ve seen many times before, but all of the previous times did it in such a horrible way and they all ended terribly. I’ll admit that I was skeptical of this one before coming towards it, especially with the plot. But this thirty minute Hungarian short film was surprisingly really good, engaging, and haunting. It was better in ways that I could even imagine.

We are introduced to an ordinary family. Mom (Dora Letay) is boiling water for a meal when Alex (Vitez Abraham) walks near it. She screams at him to get away from it, and he runs away thinking that she hates him now. Dad (Emo Fekete) comes back home that day, with a hamster cage and another box that has something in it. Alex and Mom apologize, and go to bed. The next day, Mom wakes up looking for Alex. It turns out that Alex is right in front of his mom the entire time, but his mom can’t see him. Dad did something to turn his child invisible, and nothing goes right after a rainy, rainy night…

Aside from last year’s “The Invisible,” I haven’t seen a decent film that portrayed an invisible guy who cannot be seen by anyone else. Although, “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t” is a different type a tale. It’s supposed to be a ghost story according to the premise, but within the short film’s last ten minutes, it turns from a ghost story to a drama. Usually, I’m not one to support instances like this, especially after the last short film I watched (“Crawl Space”), but “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t” takes this to its advantage. Instead of showing the genre change becoming evident, it hides it within the ghost story.

But I got to say that “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t” is most pleasing in the acting category. The emotions evoked by cast members Dora Letay and Emo Fekete make it hard not to like or hate them. Then there is poor little innocent Vitez Abraham, a little kid caught up in a mistake. His performance is short, but it’s there nonetheless. It’s pleasing for a film like this can have acting this good.

The film isn’t perfect though. We’re left asking questions that we didn’t receive. How did the Dad make the kid become invisible? How come the Dad can see the kid but not the Mom? What does the mouse have to do with the project?

But it doesn’t matter. “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t” is already a winner in my book for the fantastic acting and the interesting story. It’s better than most films of its type, and it sure as hell is surprising. Check this film out as soon as possible.