Cast wasted... It's remarkably uninteresting

Rating: 2/10 (7 November 2006)

The perfect example of a great cast wasted. It's a remarkably uninteresting movie in which the "surprise" ending was pitifully easy to spot. The fact that the ending was obvious is secondary to the fact that each of the main characters were extremely unlikable individuals. What a waste of talent.
The film is a pale shadow of the source material. The director tries to misdirect the viewer with an intricate flashback structure that begins at a trial, before time-traveling through the lives of the magicians as young men. The magicians fall in love with various women while escalating their nasty attempts to expose, outdo and injure each other.
Their obsession to obtain each other's trade secrets and become the most esteemed illusionist becomes dull and falls somewhere on the scale between weird science and bad science, this plot development adds another layer of nonsense to the drama. There's no real magic here. For more likable characters and better sleight-of-hand storytelling, see The Illusionist.