Not quite, but almost there!

Rating: 6/10 (17 October 2006)

Kind of a Sixth Sense feel to it. A period piece which takes place in Austria at the end of the 19th Century. It's a love story with a psycho, colorful detective (Giamatti - see below), illusionist, and hot female lead. Visually, film had an unusual look to it. Honestly couldn't tell if it was the poor Cinemark projection system in our brand new theater, or whether the film was intended to have many "soft spots" (focus), and soft edges (again, focus). Paul Giamatti (Stern's "Pig Vomit") did an outstanding job with the film. Very talented actor! Worth the money to see the film, but was a little disappointed in the "culmination" (you'll understand if you see it). Weakness, to me, was in the lack of sense that there was any strong love interest (probably on the editing room floor to cut the time down). Also, (without giving anything away), the end rushed and where there was to be a "gee whiz", it was more like a "who got tired of writing, watched The Sixth Sense, and thought 'hey, people will really get a kick out of this'". Yes, there was some surprise to the ending, but just "missed the boat" on being a "very good movie". My rating system and related movies: Hideous Movie - Hot To Trot, Pet Semitary Bad Movie - Lost in Translation, Escape from L.A. Fair Movie - The Corpse Bride, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (Depp) Good Movie - The Illusionist, Brimstone & Treacle (British/Sting) Very Good Movie - Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Nightmare Before Christmas, Pirates of the Caribbean Awesome Movie - Titanic, The Sixth Sense, Disney's Alladin