A predictable love story, that is quite good regardless!
Written: Oct 21 '06
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Excellent plot, flow extremely well, great characters and acting
Cons: Doesn't develop the main relationship all that well
The Bottom Line: Excellent movie, probably one of my favorites. It had a great plot line, with very believable characters. Definitely a must see!
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| biscuitfarmer's Full Review: The Illusionist |
I have always been a huge fan of love stories. I don't know why, must have been my mother raising me, but a good romantic comedy, gets me going just as much as a fast paced action film. In fact, some of my favorite movies are romantic comedies, such The Notebook, Tin Cup, Sleepless in Seattle, and my all time favorite You've Got Mail. There is something about an emotional drama, that truly makes you relate it to you own reality, see what you are missing, and desire it. Or see what you have that they are missing, and appreciate it.
When The Illusionist was first described to me last night before going out on my double date, it was described as a movie about magicians and their lives. So obviously I was completely bored with the concept and was really hoping that we were running far too late to be able to purchase tickets. I had no expectations for the movie, and figured that if nothing else, I was in good company.
As we arrived, late of course, the movie had just begun, and already it wasn't looking to promising. The movie was set in turn of the century Vienna. Walking in on it, I was already bored with the old style costumes, which I figured meant that this was going to be a glimpse back in time on something that I had no interest in, magic and illusion. I never could get into the concept in Las Vegas and I figured that I wouldn't be able to get into the history of it in a movie. But the movie started to take a drastically different twist.
Who is in it?
Edward Norton .... Eisenheim
Paul Giamatti .... Chief Inspector Uhl
Jessica Biel .... Sophie
Rufus Sewell .... Crown Prince Leopold
Eddie Marsan .... Josef Fischer
Jake Wood .... Jurka
Tom Fisher .... Willigut
Aaron Johnson .... Young Eisenheim
Eleanor Tomlinson .... Young Sophie
Karl Johnson .... Doctor/Old Man
Vincent Franklin .... Loschek
Nicholas Blane .... Herr Doebler
Philip McGough .... Dr. Hofzinser
Erich Redman .... Count Rainer
Michael Carter .... Von Thurnburg
The Beginning
The movie got going rather quickly and Edward Norton, the star of the show, and the illusionist was on stage and requested a volunteer that wasn't afraid of death. In the crowd attending was the Crown Prince, played by Rufus Sewell. The prince stood up as if to volunteer, but volunteer Jessica Biel who played the Duchess instead. As she walked up the stage, she appeared extremely nervous about volunteering. On the stage, something seemed a bit off, somewhat unusual, foreshadowing into what was to come. You could see an obvious tension between the illusionist and the Duchess. It seemed as if maybe it was just a crush at first, but soon you would find out that it was much more than that.
The Movie itself
In the sake of preserving the movie experience, I'm going to try and vaguely talk about the movie plot points, so that I don't ruin the movie itself.
Throughout the movie, you begin to see a romance develop between the illusionist and the Duchess, that had existed since they were children growing up. You find that they had met long ago, and now they were brought back into one another's lives in powerful fashion. They try to hide their love affairs, but eventually are caught, and have to make some major decisions.
The movie is filled with incredible special effects, that really show the power of the illusionist during this time period. The Crown prince is constantly trying to discredit the Illusionist and his abilities, but he is never quite able to do it. The illusionist is always trying to show that the crown prince, isn't quite as great of a man as everyone believes him to be. So the two are constantly going back and forth, one trying to out gun the other. All the while, the Duchess is caught in the middle of it.
Special Effects
The special effects in the movie are quite impressive. A lot of the movie takes place in the theater in which the Illusionist performs in front of a packed crowd. There are a lot of different special effects and concepts that the movie explores, rather than just the same ones. All of the illusions that are performed are quite interested, and it feels as if you are really watching them. You'll find yourself amazed at the tricks, and then you'll remember that it is indeed a movie, and surely movie trickery was used in the creation of it.
The acting
Throughout the movie, I was thinking how incredible the acting was. The illusionist seemed to have an inexplainable confidence, and it appeared as if Edward Norton truly was capable of doing this illusions. The crowd also gave a lot to the movie, as the individual actors within the crowd, did an excellent job of making the illusions seem real, reacting powerfully, to what at that time had to appear as if it were wizardry.
The passion between Biel and Norton was also quite powerful. You could tell that they really worked through the script to give the best possible performance. It was definitely believable, and impactful at every position throughout the movie.
Overall, the acting was extremely effective in it's portayal of this wonderful movie!
Final Thoughts
While the movie was extremely predictable, the way that the movie was developed was far from predictable. You knew what the end result was going to be, but you couldn't tell how they were going to get there.
The character development was a little on the light side and you really never got to see the actual development of the relationship between the two main characters, and you never got a chance to feel any one of the characters. There was far too much plot to get through in order to really develop on the relationships all that much, which I feel is the major flaw in the movie.
Probably the major plot point of the movie revolves around the romance between the Duchess and the Illusionist, however, this is barely developed, you know that it is always there and is the main purpose behind all of the events, but it is only lightly touched on. You never get a chance to truly feel their passion and to understand their love. You are forced to buy off on this romance after only a single session together. However, even with this, it's still an excellent development throughout the movie, and it would have been hard to do it any other way without losing some of the key plot points.
This is truly a multi-faceted movie, that you have to pay attention to. There are a lot of aspects of the movie, that rely on earlier concepts in order to develop the plot further, so if you weren't paying attention, you will be confused and probably will not get into the movie as much as it deserves.
Ultimately, it has incredible acting that is extremely believable. The core romance is a bit weak at times, but the movie is very enjoyable to flows extremely well.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Date Movie
Viewing Method: Studio Screening/Premiere
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing
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