A poor mans' "The Prestige" dressed up as an illusion

Rating: 6/10 (3 April 2014)

There are a few things to like about "The Illusionist" but just as many to wonder who the director thought the audience is. I like Norton as the quietly suffering illusionist, but a story about a magician should draw you in because you understand his world. "The Prestige" completely gets it while here we get a teenage love story without a mentor pushing our young hero to "go for it". We learn the secret to one simple tell tale trick but absolutely nothing about the continuous trick of seemingly bringing back the dead. That was the fascination the drives the plot home, but it is magical and we are forced to take it at that value with no mythology or reason. Insulting! The summary of our watcher putting the pieces back together is nice and tidy but full of holes and happens too fast to realize that he'd have no idea if his assumptions really add up and are plausible. The mystery is romantically predictable and the pay off feels trite