failed attempt at making a clever movie

Rating: 2/10 (2 March 2007)

First of all this movie is very cheesy and clichéd; the music, the sappy love-story, the good guy, the bad guy etc. The basic story is a boring and predictable lady-and-the-tramp tale, forbidden love, Romeo and Juliet etc. It's been done to death by now.
Secondly the characters are one-dimensional. There's Eisenheim who's torn apart from Sophie by the powers that be, an underdog but with a gift for illusions. By the way, the magic tricks seem totally impossible to perform, let alone in those days.. But who cares because he's the good guy, let's all cheer, yay! Then there's Leopold, he hunts animals for trophies, gets drunk and hits his fiancée. Let's all boo the bad guy, boo! It's like a cartoon, Eisenheim could be Popeye fighting Brutus (Leopold) because he kidnapped Olive Oyl (Sophie).
And finally there's the surprise ending, which didn't fit with the rest of the movie at all. I won't give away the ending but when you really think about what the "good-guy" did to the "bad-guy".. It seems to me very immoral and evil, yet it's presented as if it's a great thing.
In short, a boring movie with a strange tagged-on ending. I would recommend to see "The Prestige" instead.