Enjoyable and entertaining fare

Rating: 7/10 (26 September 2006)

I'm going to keep the review of this film short. Basically, this film is a good mystery film. The performances range from adequate to excellent (predictably). The directing is perfectly invisible, minus some montagery (this is a good thing for this sort of film) and subtly (or sometimes not-so-subtly) highlights the emotions and tensions present in the film.
There is some tricky writing going on, however, it's not too difficult to guess the plot if you're well read in films or mystery-dramas. And the combination of all these leads to enjoyable and entertaining fare. It's not much more than that, but I don't think it's trying to be.
The only criticism I can really level against the film is that, as a mystery film, things are only partially explained in the end. In particular, the whole aspect of the film regarding illusion and magic isn't adequately explained and I can understand why the writer/director didn't want to fully explain it, because it does take away from the magic, but the genre that the film is in dictates that it must be at least explained adequately. If it's magic, tell me so. If it's trickery, show me so. But some of what happens in the movie continues to be unexplained, although to some degree, some explanations are hinted at.
Nevertheless, that's the only real criticism I have of the film. It didn't particularly impress or connect with me, but that doesn't make it any less of a worthy effort. You wouldn't go wrong by watching this one. 7/10.