Not bad at all...

Rating: 7/10 (5 April 2007)

I'd heard a lot of bad press regarding this movie, much of it I suspect due to the movie being released around the same time as the superior "The Prestige". While clearly there are similarities between the two movies, and some pretty striking ones at that, it's possible to take each of them on their own merits as I feel they are different enough that they don't really compete with each other.
Both movies are essentially a love story at heart and both feature rival magicians (only touched on here as one of the characters happens to state that he's an amateur dabbler despite being a policeman)and some kind of twist at the end although to be honest with "The Illusionist" you can see it coming a mile off. That doesn't stop you from enjoying what is, in a sense, a very entertaining movie despite some shoddy acting and lazy directing.
I suspect much of the appeal and good things in this movie probably come from the novel it was based on and while there are a few scenes that do benefit from an understated sense of drama I think generally there were a lot of places where things could have been ramped up a bit. Particularly frustrating was how the death of a major character half way through was handled. Shockingly bad, no emotional context and off-screen to boot as well although to be fair there are some revelations at the end that do explain why things were handled this way although better directors could have done it more convincingly.
The acting is pretty sub-par in quite a few areas too. Some actors actually look and sound like they could nod off mid sentence. Most of the acting it has to be said is pretty monotonous and bland despite the presence of solid actors like Norton and Sewell. The only real performance of note was from Paul Giamatti who turned in a solid effort as the police inspector trying to unravel the mystery. It's good to see him get some real screen time as he's becoming a great character actor and it's a joy watching him work(give this guy more gigs).
Ultimately "The Prestige" IS a much better movie, being handled more professionally all round, probably had a bigger budget too but despite it's shortcomings there's a lot to recommend in "The Illusionist" and you could do a lot worse.