I Was Totally Involved

Rating: 9/10 (31 August 2007)

This movie came out about the time "The Prestige" did. I really enjoyed that movie for its multiple plot levels. It also stayed a mystery to the end. I enjoyed both of them. I wish there were more films like these. This one sets you up by making it known that the purpose of the main character is to fool you. The film then sets about to do so, not with a bunch of gratuitous magic, but with a carefully plotted set of circumstances. You laugh, you cringe, you cry, you're outraged. The performance of Edward Norton is really admirable. He puts that neutral face on every event and yet you know he's teeming with emotion. His sense of love and craft are carefully integrated and we know the bad guy is going to pay in some way. One gets a little jaded sometime when films fail to deliver. Or the writer or director paint themselves into a corner. This doesn't happen here. There is something around every corner, but it doesn't jump out; it lies there unopened. You need to open it.