Excellent story, multi-layered, enjoyable, bears repeat viewing but far from perfect.

Rating: 7/10 (20 February 2016)

I have a particular perspective on this movie, being myself a stage hypnotist. Whilst my art is quite distinct from that of illusionists such as are depicted in this movie (although I have performed as such also) the two fields do overlap and in the broadest common usage I am often referred to as a magician. Many aspects of the story I found to resonate with me on a personal level.
I emphasise the story because that is what sustains this production. I have'nt read the original (though I have earlier work by the same author) but the screenplay sustains attention through what might otherwise be judged an overlong piece. To be frank, the movie starts slowly and dwells excessively on many scenes, some of which are irrelevant to the plot and could have been omitted with no loss. For example the one with the prank on the prison warder.
The sets, photography, costumes, performances are all excellent but one would not sit through it just for those aspects. Until the story cranked up some momentum I regarded the movie as yet another to make jokes about rather than being engaged by. Indeed I chuckled when a magicians "secret" is revealed in mysterious seclusion as what appears to be a gigantic metronome with its cover on(it isn't, but looks like one). The slow start is not entirely the directors fault and in this respect the writing falls short of its overall quality. Deliberate humour is actually one thing entirely absent from the movie, which may be appropriate given the dark subject matter. However, the early parts, with a story told using intercut viewpoints and time-frames, flash-backs and flash-forwards is really rather confusing.
There are sub-texts in the story which extend beyond the immediate tale itself and these are subtly flagged up in the script. The ambiguity of identity is only the most obvious theme. The best feature of the realisation only become apparent when one has already watched it and the metaphors hidden in plain sight throughout become retrospectively apparent. In a way, this is something of a magic trick in itself. Perhaps the attention spent on what I have suggested to be "irrelevent" scenes are after all a kind of mis-direction. A kind of magic!