All the right ingredients, but lacked that touch of magic

Rating: 6/10 (25 March 2007)

With a superb cast such as Norton and Giamatti, and a sprinkling of rave reviews from friends, I was expecting to see a film that would impress. What I got however was something far from a masterpiece and nowhere near the class that was 'The Prestige' which deals with a similar subject matter.
So what was good? In a word, nothing. Norton did nothing to endear the audience to his character, in fact he was quite 'bland', which is disappointing as he has done some fabulous turns in other films. Giamatti gave a more solid performance, but tended to overact in parts and his face in the last scene was priceless! Biel did well as the elegant Princess Sophie, but she wasn't really around long enough for her character to actually do anything. In fact the best performance came from Sewell who made a convincing baddie that we all love to hate (but then he's done this before in 'A Knight's Tale' hasn't he?). Coupled with the poor acting the characters were just not strong enough.
Then there was the plot. For me, the major problem in the whole film was the twist and my reasoning is this.. I am the last person to figure out twists, and when they happen I am normally stunned, shocked and confused - "how did I miss it??" This makes me the perfect person to watch mystery style films as I will always give the desired outcome. "Why is this a problem?" you ask. The problem is that I SAW THIS TWIST COMING A MILE OFF!!! Which meant for the rest of the film I was simply waiting for the answer to be revealed.
And it was revealed... in a 'here's how it was all done' fashion, which when the likes of me can see the twist, it is slightly patronising to then reveal it in this way. In fact, had they had skipped this over-dramatised, "look how clever we are" scene, I could have been almost to my car and on my way home!