A huge disappointment

Rating: 5/10 (13 February 2007)

This is the movie that is supposed to be the huge competitor of Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige"? This is the movie that received a rating of 7.7 here on IMDb? God, this movie is a joke! I can't believe how many things are wrong with it. This movie about a magician has fallen into every trap "The Prestige" avoided. Whereas in Nolan's film all magic tricks are possible at least according to the movie's logic, "The Illusionist" makes the magician look like a real wizard. Apparently director Neil Burger wanted to leave it to the viewer to decide whether Norton's character Eisenheim relies on tricks or really has magical powers. That is the first thing that is very lame about "The Illusionist".
What's worse is the story. Slow, uninteresting, not believable and ultimately completely unsatisfying. In other words, the script is a complete failure.
The most shocking thing, however, is the acting. I would never have thought that Edward Norton could be so bad. He stumbles through this movie like an amateur playing his first main role in a high school stage play. Nothing much could be expected from Jessica Biel and she's just about not horrible. Paul Giamatti tried his best to act convincingly but overacted in the end. His constant rolling eyes and his weird "doubtful, yet intrigued, but always critical" looks come very close to unintentional comedy. The best performance in this movie was given by Rufus Sewell, but even he couldn't save a character as one dimensional and shallow as Crown Prince Leopold.
One positive thing about the movie is the set design. As a person who is living in Vienna I would have loved if they had shot this right here in my hometown, but hey, what the hell. A movie as promising as this one with a cast like this is exciting enough, even if it just pretends to be set in Vienna or so I thought. Well, after having seen "The Illusionst" I'm not very excited anymore. This was just a great opportunity wasted. I wouldn't watch it a second time.