Stunning

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2007)

My first impression of this movie was a cliché' boy meets girl, boy loses girl, then boy gets girl. Well let me tell you I couldn't have been more wrong. Edward Norton depicts the falsified images of a tortured soul perfectly and once again blows me away. I'll break it down into the usual categories.
Script- 9/10 Neil Burger puts together a fantastic rendition of the novel by Steven Millhauser. An extremely believable script with a captivating plot line. The dialogue between Jessica Biel's Sophie and Ed Norton's Eisenheim though cheesy at times feel real and passionate. Burger intertwines the character's lives perfectly coming into a masterpiece.
Directing- 10/10 Thought Burger doesn't have the longest or most illustrious career he throws together a brilliant movie. He captures not only the should of his characters but he uses subtleties to hint at the outcome of the movie long before the conclusion, but keeps them extremely complicated.
Acting- 8/10 What can I say, this movie was beautifully casted. My only complaint has to be with Jessica Biel as at times she doesn't come off as the most convincing. Ed Nortong, Paul Giamatti, and Rufus Sewell all piece together the turmoil of their characters perfectly. The arrogance of Leopold (Sewell), the pain of Eisenheim (Norton) and the confusion of Uhl (Giamatti) are done to perfection.
Set/effects/costume- 8/10 Well I wouldn't exactly call this the movies downfall because it was all down pretty well but it's definitely the weak point of the film. The sets definitely felt authentic and appeared to fit into the setting of 1900 Vienna, as did the costumes. But the effects was where the weak points came. CGI can be hard to do in movies where its used rarely and this was the case in The Illusionist. A few scenes where Eisenheim is doing his shows you lose some of the believability factor due to the poor CGI.
SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!