Magic
Director: Richard Attenborough
Year Released: 1978
Rating: 1.5
Shy magician Anthony Hopkins uses his wooden puppet "Fats" as his foul-mouthed 'id,' but this split-personality business just leads to murderous impulses in this implausible mess. Hopkins does his best working across from a dummy, getting all wild-eyed and flustered to suggest insanity, but it still feels like a impeccably-prepared performance - it fails to help matters much that the 'dummy's' nasally voice sounds awful. It's probably not all William Goldman's fault that this doesn't work - sometimes novels need to remain novels (The Bell Jar, anyone?) - but since I dislike most of his scripts, why not point the finger at him anyway?
