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Malkovich as trouper past his prime

As a showbiz mentalist with a bad comb-over and a toothy grin of conviction, John Malkovich has a big, juicy porterhouse of a role in The Great Buck Howard. In this gently funny, nostalgia-tinged feature from writer-director Sean McGinly, the actor plays

As a showbiz mentalist with a bad comb-over and a toothy grin of conviction, John Malkovich has a big, juicy porterhouse of a role in The Great Buck Howard. In this gently funny, nostalgia-tinged feature from writer-director Sean McGinly, the actor plays a veteran trouper touring a circuit of second-tier towns and half-filled theaters, treating his audience to sleights-of-hand, miracles of mind-reading, and even a sit-down at the piano, doing a wobbly croon through "What the World Needs Now Is Love."

Like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, Malkovich plays a star long past his glory days in The Great Buck Howard, but continuing to do the only thing he knows. The tone of the two films couldn't be less alike, but the story arc of the central characters graphs the same. The problem with The Great Buck Howard is that McGinly gives us another key character - Troy Gable (Colin Hanks), a would-be writer who drops out of law school to become Buck Howard's road manager-cum-personal assistant. ("You can toss my salad when you get back to the hotel," the magician instructs his new hire.)

Relying heavily on ye olde voice-over narrative device, McGinly's portrait of the garrulous, testy, and surprisingly adept illusionist is filtered through the mopey musings of Hanks' Troy, a nice guy who does Howard's bidding, sees him at his best and worst, and stores it up for what we can only imagine will be a book - or this screenplay.

The younger Hanks (the older one, a guy named Tom, appears in a brief cameo as Troy's disapproving dad) isn't exactly Mr. Charisma. Although the role is designed as that of the close-by observer, the film suffers for Hanks' outsize blandness. When Emily Blunt, in a saucy turn as a New York public relations pro, enters the picture and beds Troy - well, her attraction strains credulity. What can she possibly see in this milquetoast?

Inspired in part by the life and legerdemain of the Amazing Kreskin, The Great Buck Howard is still more winning than not. Malkovich, mixing the magician shtick with a dogged resiliency, a dab of pathos, and more than a bit of mystery (did he really just hypnotize 300 people?), is simply a joy to watch.EndText