Not my cup of tea, but a brilliantly constructed film

Rating: 8/10 (26 June 2007)

The only reason i did not enjoy this movie was just my preference on stories; the topic just didn't interest me. But the movie told the story very well through uses of foreshadowing, great acting and great visuals.
A friend of mine always loves to point out whenever a story uses foreshadowing and when he saw this movie he almost had a heart attack. The key scene that symbolically told the whole story was the one where Sophie (Jessica Beil's character) was chosen as a volunteer for one of Eisenheim's illusions. A red robe (red also being a symbolic color of love, for example: a red rose) was placed over her and with the swing of a sword (as if cutting her), she was gone. As the story plays out, Sophie's death was faked to make her "dissapear" from her formal life of loneliness and she was to live with Eisenheim for the rest of their lives.
One can spend a long time picking apart the story which is what makes this a good film for analytical movie buffs, so I figured be giving you a brief example of one of the many things that make this movie worth watching. ENJOY!!