Thanks Zing.

Now here's an old school gem of a movie...

I won't be surprised to hear future comments in this thread about slow pacing, but to me the story unfolded like the petals of a rare flower -- slow; to help you savor the elegant construction of this romantic tale...

Edward Norton and Jesica Biel make great brooding star-crossed lovers, while two great character actors chow down the scenery as glorious bad guys - Rufus Sewell and Paul Giamatti -- what a cast!

As I left the movie ended, I overheard the hordes of older audience members streaming out, all saying variations of: "That was a good movie, they don't make 'em like that anymore." --- Yup, this is an old-timer pleaser and will have some serious old-timer legs. Hopefully, it catches on with the ADHD generation too...

6 out of 5.

I shall be seeing this hopefully tonight. Your review makes the movie sound promising.

So I watched the movie and I liked it. Rufus Sewell is amazing. He's especially good at being evil as he looks exactly like my boss . Edward Norton was amazing (as always) and jessica Biel was good, but for some reason I think her character should've had darker features (no clue why, but the fact that she stood out from all other characters so easily distracted me). I think I would've liked the movie more had they kept going with the plotline and not do the twist at the end. The twist was extremely predictable and I was liking how the movie was heading (where i believed he was real). It would've been cool had they managed to pull a 6th sense and rather than revealing the predictable twist, done some other twist when Giamatti tried to arrest him and couldn't.

The ending was also a bit off as they explained some things and not others (ie the ghosts).

Other than that it was really enjoyable. I give it a B.

B

It never really knows whether to focus on Edward Nortonm or Paul Giamatti, and the ending wasn't nearly as hard to figure out as the film thought it was (and what was with Giamatti grinning like a kid on Christmas?). The magic stuff is great, the plot is intriguing, and the acting is excellent.

I didn't quite get the ending...well parts of it anyway.

But overall, it was a good film, saw it a few weeks ago so my memory isn't quite perfect, but it was well made overall. The cast did very well and Biehl and Norton seemed to have very good chemistry. Overall, enjoyable, if a bit overlong and not without flaws. B

i probably just got incredibly confused, as i havent really been around much, but for some reason when i saw "the illusionist" i figured it was the one with johansson et al, and i was shocked it was out so soon. maybe i didnt think that there could be two serious magic films so near each other. but anyway, once i realized it was a different film i couldnt for the life of me remember ANYthing about the movie, though i'm sure there's no way fandango was the first i'd heard of it.

so i ended up watching it completely ignorant about it, turns out, i loved it. partly cuz i couldnt get over how beautiful it was. fav cinematogrphy of the yr, easily (minus anything i'm forgetting). I really enjoy old fotos, and this was like one of those come to life. but besides that, it was endlessly interesting, fantastically acted, and a great story. i guess it was a little predictable (i only thought for about half a second that she might really be dead - i figured there had to be /SOME/thing coming), but its definitely one of the best of yr so far.

What an enchanting little gem of a film. The first thing that struck me was how incredibly gorgeous all aspects of production were; art direction, costumes and especially the cinematography (definitely the best I've seen this year). I loved the little touches in the flashback scenes, like the soft focus and the black border, reminiscent of early silent films. The next surprise was just how well told this story is and the uniformly superb acting. Giamatti and Norton are no-brainers, but I was kind of suprised how well Biel did in her role. The characters are drawn quite plainly here, with Giamatti getting the most development, which keeps it from achieving greatness, but I was nontheless caught up in the tone, atmosphere and magical subject matter presented.

A-

One of the best of the year. Actually, I loved it. In my top 3 with Vice and Sunshine. August/September has been great to me.

I really enjoyed it as well. SOme of it's elements are confusing, never add up, and don't make much sense. Regardless, I still really enjoyed it.

B+

Great Movie. The acting was superb, and I loved the storyline. But I am still a little confused about the end. Can someone please help.

Norton is a magician with seemingly more power than the usual sleight of hand in 'The Illusionist.' Said power comes into question from Paul Giamatti's Chief Inspector Uhl when the woman (Jessica Biel) he was seen with is found dead, made moreso when it's discovered they were childhood friends. Uhl also has to deal with pressure from Rufus Sewell's Crown Prince, who despises the showmanship and romanticism of the magician and would like nothing more than to see him implicated in the murder.

The film is extremely well-acted by the principle cast, with even the sporadic Biel giving a convincing performance. The film is gorgeously filmed by Dick Pope with able support from Philip Glass' lyrical score.

Grade: A-

A bland, predictable film.

**

Fantastic movie. I loved it. Only problem is *spoiler* How did Norton and Biel vanish on stage? They never explained this. Did he really have powers?

C+, agree with Squee completely.

B-

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Nice cinematography, nice score, but you know what? It wasn't in service of much. The plotting was dumb; why the hell wouldn't Norton and Biel get the fuck out of dodge right after the you-know-what? Why stick around? I don't really see any political motivation for the two.

All the parts were underwritten, but Paul Giamatti manages to carve a nice performance out (and it's really his movie). Edward Norton? Not so much. He's one of those actors who always gets praise because, you know, he's Ed Norton, but he really wasn't good here. His accent was inconsistent, his delivery awkward, and that "I am concentrating in order to conjure dead souls" face really just looked like constipation. Indeed, most of the acting was bad. Biel? Rufus Sewell?

I enjoyed it all the same. I'd never watch it again though.

My third favourite film this year.

I just love the brilliance and simplicity and complexity of the film. It is a throwback to the way films were probably made 40 years ago. The performances and the dialogue dominate and stand out and I really hope this gets some consideration at oscar time.

9.5 out 10

Bingo.

The key to the film working is that the audience is invested in and believes in the love story. I wasn't, and didn't. With the main thrust of the picture removed, it's up to the visuals, acting, and rest of the story to make up for it. None did. The visuals were interesting and nice for like the first twenty minutes or so, and then it just became monotonous and bland -- kinda like the story. The films plotting goes exactly like this, the entire way through - magic show, character conflict, magic show, character conflict, magic show, character conflict, etc, etc, etc...

The acting was (surprisingly) uniformly awful. Every cast member was either lifelessly underacting (Norton and Biel) or hilariously overacting (Giamatti and Sewell). There was no medium.

Staggeringly disappointing.

*/****

Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy The Illusionist, makeshift -- but I did love that pun in your review!

I know to each his or her own, but this film was just about perfect in every way. I was very endeared with the characters and I thought the acting was superb.

Didn't see that one coming!

Very legitimate criticisms, however. I noticed these things, yes, but there are times when a movie comes out of no where and manages to be just... refreshing. Or at least I thought so. I'd still say it is one of the year's best.

My three favourite films so far this year:

Little Miss Sunshine
Click
The Illusionist

Well here's the thing. I knew what was going on almost instantly, (I don't even know if the big payoff was supposed to be surprising, though the old people in the theater seemed shocked...) and the only thing keeping me invested in the movie was seeing how it was pulled off. But the trick wasn't all that creative so I was just "eh, shrug."

I just felt... nothing from the movie. It wasn't terrible, it was just... nothing.

Wow! What a complete and wonderful delight! This is one of 2006's very best films. The ending is one of the best endings of the year as well, I loved it! All of the performances are great, especially Jessica Biel. I don't really understand how someone couldn't like this movie, it's so magical and romantic. All of the magic tricks performed by Ed Norton were really awesome too. A complete surprise. This really is one of the very best films of the year!

9/10 (A-)