Entertaining Stuff

Rating: 8/10 (17 March 2011)

This one, Directed by Neil Burger, is a real good thriller movie, with really high class Art-Direction and packed with well crafted performances.
Though it's a thriller, the plot is based on a typical "poor-boy-and-rich-girl-falling-for-each-other" love story. The Story moves on, with the boy leaving the country and then emerging again with an alias name (Eisenheim The Illusionist) and wonderful skill of creating illusion. There he finds his old love (Duchess von Teschen), and also finds that she is going to marry the current Crown Prince.
The movie shows some of the greatest magic tricks in a stylish manner. As I mentioned earlier , the art direction and the way ,city Vienna is shown , is really some enchanting stuff.
Edward Norton has always been one of my favourite actors, and he don't disappoint, along with Jessica Biel. Paul Giamatti is also a class of his own as the chief police inspector, but it's Rufus Sewell, as Prince Leopold, who mesmerizes the most.
Only at the end one may find the movie a little predictable , so some of the twists in the story may be a little less fascinating. Also, as not every trick's mechanism is shown , somehow some of the Illusion seems to be unreal.
But it's still a good watch.