Sandeep Sharma’s film Magician of the Heart is a simple story told in an extraordinary way. The writing is subtle, the directing always engaging and the acting superb. The opening tragedy, a car crash that kills the protagonist’s wife, and the aftermath is presented in a very clever montage. Knowing that the audience doesn’t need it’s hand held, Sharma takes us through several disjointed images and we slowly understand what’s going on. The crash. The shock. The psychiatrist. The bad attempts to get over the loss. Eventually, we settle in with Jakub.
We soon discover that Jakub, played by Jakub Haczkiewicz, is an extremely charming character being played by an extraordinary actor. He is in fact one of those actors who plays his part so well that we have a hard time believing he’s not just playing himself. This can sometimes be a problem. Tommy Lee Jones once claimed that he had a hard time finding work after Coal Miner’s Daughter because everyone just assumed he was in real life just like his character. We hope this isn’t the case with Jakub, and that we will be seeing much more of his in the future.
He lives in an apartment with his mother, who is also a natural talent. She putters around. She’s clearly disappointed that her son hasn’t, in her words, made something of himself. Instead, Jakub struggles to keep his head above water by making videos. In the beginning, these are tentative efforts, but over time, he finds his voice, and his look. Despite the negativity he experiences from his friend and mother, he perseveres. His mother doesn’t like the cake he made for her and his sad sack friend keeps telling him that his idea for making videos needs more work. But he doesn’t let this negativity keep him down. He puts on a wetsuit and makes amusing inspirational videos. He becomes the magician of the heart. He soon discovers that he has the ability to make people laugh, including his stony psychologist.
One of the interesting aspects of this story is that we never actually find out if Jakub’s videos are successful. Is he getting 3 million views? Three views? We don’t know. This, I suspect, is not an oversight on the filmmakers’ part. If we knew he was getting millions of views and starting to make a living, the film would have quite a different message. Similarly, if he were getting no views, we would look at him differently. But not telling us at all how his videos are doing underscores the point: He’s doing this as a way of coping. And that’s all.
It would be hard to say if the film has a happy ending. It might be more accurate to say that the film has a happy enough ending. An ending that is about as happy as we could realistically expect. In a Hollywood studio film, Jakub would meet Margot Robbie, there would be some misunderstandings, and the two would meet on the top of the Empire State building and then ride off into the sunset. In Sharma’s film, we get no such brilliant denouement. In a good movie, the protagonist experiences some sort of change. It is a testament to a skilled filmmaker when that change can be powerful, meaningful and small. Kenneth Lonnergan’s 2016 masterpiece, Manchester by the Sea is an example. Sharma does something similar here by having Jakub struggle and change, but in a way that makes sense and in a way that can actually serve as inspiration to those going through a similar type of loss. He doesn’t win a gold medal or save the world. He finds a way forward by bringing happiness to others. And that’s it.
The film is shot in the style of a documentary, and the shots are never boring. The production values here are top notch. The music is a perfect fit, and, at times, hilarious.
Sandeep Sharma is a director living in New York City. He founded his production company, A Light in the Universe Filmworks, or ALITUF, after the idea came to him in a dream. He has worked as a commercial director as well as on several public service announcements. We sincerely hope to see more fiction from him in the future.
By: Darida Rose
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