A great, entertaining movie, but ultimately quite flawed.

Rating: 7/10 (7 March 2007)

The Illusionist is a tale set in early 1900's Vienna, to which it tells the story of a Magician believed to have superpowers beyond the realm of 'illusion', but when he meets with his lost love, who is now being married to the Crown Prince, accusations fly from the Prince himself as to if his tricks are indeed illusions or in fact 'magic'.
The music is great, but there's not really enough of it, the movie seems almost empty in places. The acting is superb, a great cast and a fantastic leading role played by the ever-great Edward Norton. The costume and set designs notably, are visually great and the direction is unusual but well done, especially considering the (until now) unknown director.
The movie however, has far too much missing. The ending especially, seems to be going for that 'we'll leave it up to the audience' conclusion, but the fact is it doesn't make you wonder, it just makes you frustrated. The most obvious example would be how the movie explains quite freely how a lot of the 'illusions' are done and indeed quite easily pieces together a lot of the unsolved scenes of mystery, yet refuses or even IGNORES the explanation of the most significant parts of the movie.
However, This movie is quite entertaining, it tips along at a nice pace and is VERY intriguing, but it certainly left me disappointed. But then again, maybe I just didn't think hard enough about it. I'd still recommend it though.