I've just finished watching The Illusionist, and I'm baffled that I hadn't seen this movie before now. It was truly one of the best movies I've seen. I'm sort of at a loss of words right now, but I'll try to lay my thoughts out.
The Illusionist was not talked about very much. I remember seeing that this was in the theaters sometime ago, but knew nothing about it. I remember thinking that I might rent this one when it came out on DVD. I'm so glad that I finally did, though I really wish I would've seen this on the big screen.
The Illusionist is a story of love, passion, murder, betrayal, magic, illusion, and the power of the human spirit. It is the story of the power that true love can hold. It is the story of magic and the wonder that it can bring. It is about recognizing the power that passion holds.
Everything about this movie was beautiful. The storyline was wonderful, the magic was breathtaking even on film, and the film itself was just gorgeous. The Illusionist is a classic tale of love and magic with a Hitchcock-esque twist. The acting is superb all around. Edward Norton and Jessica Biel give absolutely amazing performances as do the rest of the actors. Paul Giamatti, the star of last year's Lady in the Water gives another great performance and as much as I hated Rufus Sewell's character, the prince, he gave a damn good performance to bring that hatred out.
Neil Burger is a fairly new director and I very much look forward to his career. This movie was shot beautifully. So many warm, almost sepia tones to this film. Plenty of greens, golds, browns, and reds. Every scene was shot with so much care in mind. The film was as much a piece of art as it was a movie, a theme recurrent in the movie. Eisenheim's magic was as much art as it was illusion.
I'm shocked that this movie wasn't up for any awards at this year's Oscars. In my opinion, it was just as good as Pan's Labyrinth which was up for I believe 5 awards. I'll go ahead and give in an award for making it into my list of top films!
Beautiful movie that I highly recommend to anyone. Absolutely amazing.
