One of the best films of this year, last year, ANY year

Rating: 10/10 (15 October 2006)

The Illusionist is one of the best movies I've ever seen, plain and simple. It's perfect in ways I never knew a film could be perfect. Instead of trying to come up with adjectives to describe the experience, I will suggest instead - or rather implore - that you vigorously ignore any comments that will give anything away about this magnificently masterful (OK, OK, those are adjectives) film and just go see it.
And no, I am not just saying this because Paul Giamatti (whom I have a group for at Yahoo - a not-so-subtle plug: http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/talkpaul/) co-stars in it and turns in yet another seamless, brilliant performance, and no, I'm not just saying this because I've always been a huge fan of my fellow Leo Edward Norton, who had me at hello years ago when I caught him in Primal Fear; this is an actor who has grown immensely with every role he's tackled since then, and his performance in this movie - along with Giamatti's - is Oscar-worthy.
The Illusionist succeeds on levels that are far beyond the scope of any words, in any review. From the opening credits, there is a spell being cast, a palpable otherworldly feeling which permeates every frame of this masterpiece. What I'm saying is, the film starts off great and gets even greater. If you love movies like you say you love movies, this is the movie for you.