This movie is ridiculous

Rating: Null/10 (14 October 2006)

Eisenheim is a consummate professional. He leaves nothing to chance in his tricks. They are well-thought out and cannot be figured out. That's why his plan to save Sophie is so ridiculous. What if the Crown Prince doesn't follow her out to the barn? What if the Crown Prince kills her in the main house? What if the drug that Sophie gives him works too soon and he collapses in front of the guard outside the barn? You mean to tell me that a drug is so precise that they know he will pass out as soon as he gets in the barn, assuming he even follows her? What if the Crown Prince doesn't kill himself in the end? In all instances, the illusion would come to a quick end. Does this sound like a plan that a genius like Eisenheim would come up with? A script that builds a plan based on several unlikely events happening is a bad script. Plain and simple. You people are suffering from The Halo Effect. Just because Norton is a great actor and the cinematography is good, doesn't mean that the underlying story is good. And from a structural standpoint, this script repeats itself every ten minutes in Act 2. I was bored during the movie, and when the great 'reveal' was made, I was just disgusted that the writer/director assumed that so many people would suspend their common sense. However, he was right.