THE ILLUSIONIST

Coming out at the same time as The Prestige, the movie theatres last fall were crammed with magicial movies. The Illusionist tells the tale of an ill-fated childhood romance that is rekindled between E. Norton and J. Biel in their adulthood. The film has fair acting and does a very good job of setting the mood for the Viennese culture which uses magic as an escape from their problems. That is unfortunately about all it does well. The story jumps way too quickly when Norton and Biel meet again turning their innocent childhood love, in no time into akward sex. From here the movies builds too its far too predictable ending, in which they explain everything you could've guessed, but none of the things which you were confused about. Like how does he make those dead boys appear? The movie should have either left all the magic unexplained or explained everything. I give this movie a generous 4/10 for Norton's Giamatti's and Sewell's performances.

4/10