Ryan Scott
11th June 2007, 01:02 PM (13:02)
Someone let us borrow the Illusionist over the weekend. The movie stars Edward Norton in the title role. As a peasant youth in late 19th century Vienna, he became enamored with the local Noble's daughter (played by Jessica Biel) until they are forced apart. He travels the world only to return as a renowned illusionist. He sets up shop in Vienna with unbelievable illusions, drawing the attention of the Crown Prince (Rufus Sewell), who just happens to be engaged to the aforementioned young woman. As their romance is rekindled, the jealous prince sends his chief inspector (Paul Giammatti) to investigate the Illusionist and to bring him down.
Norton and Giamatti are fantastic actors and in this film Giammatti steals the show with an intense portrayal of a rather thin character. Biel surprisingly holds her own quite well, the only shortcoming being that she decided to give her character an accent, which comes out as two entirely different accents depending on when the scenes were shot.
There's supposed to be a level of intrigue and mystery that is entirely predictable. The only actually mysterious plot elements are left unexplained at the end. The Illusionist had the unfortunate favor of being released at the same time as The Prestige, which was also about magicians and was about 1,000 times better.
The Illusionist isn't so bad that you'll hate it while you're watching it, but there's certainly a bunch of other movies that would be a better use of your time. I wouldn't suggest spending money to see it.
Norton and Giamatti are fantastic actors and in this film Giammatti steals the show with an intense portrayal of a rather thin character. Biel surprisingly holds her own quite well, the only shortcoming being that she decided to give her character an accent, which comes out as two entirely different accents depending on when the scenes were shot.
There's supposed to be a level of intrigue and mystery that is entirely predictable. The only actually mysterious plot elements are left unexplained at the end. The Illusionist had the unfortunate favor of being released at the same time as The Prestige, which was also about magicians and was about 1,000 times better.
The Illusionist isn't so bad that you'll hate it while you're watching it, but there's certainly a bunch of other movies that would be a better use of your time. I wouldn't suggest spending money to see it.