Darn

Rating: 5/10 (12 January 2007)

You know, I heard a lot about this film while it had its theatrical run, and I even made plans to see it in the dollar theatre (but woke up too late), so I was very excited to finally get a chance to see it. Turns out it was pretty disappointing. Which was surprising, so I guess I can give it that (not really).
Here we have your typical low-class guy falls in love with high-class girl flick, mixed with the typical brown-tinted period piece. Edward Norton plays a gifted young magician who must save Jessica Biel's young duchess from the evil upper-class boyfriend who is the crown prince. Seems ol' poor boy's shared love with rich pretty lady is controversial in its time, and now he has to use all his tricks of illusion and sleight-of-hand to save her from marrying the evil guy who's not only a jerk, but planning to overthrow the throne as well! Now, all this could possibly be interesting if it weren't for the fact that the first scene pretty much gives away the first half of the movie, and then the first half definitely gives away the second. I find it to be a sign of pretty bad storytelling if a movie that subsists on tricks and illusions is always at least two scenes behind me.
That would also possibly be acceptable mostly because of good performance. Edward Norton does well. Paul Giamatti does what he does best. Biel and who's-his-face who played the crown prince sucked, and worse, the script pretty much assumed we already detested the boyfriend for whatever reason and only provided a few examples (eh, I suppose he was rude), and missed out on what could have been an intriguing battle of the wits between the two enemies.
So you have Norton and Giamatti acting really well in a brown movie. Okay.
--PolarisDiB Favorite Quote: "The sword to its rightful owner!" Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars.