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Illusionist, The
Yari Film Group Releasing


8.0

based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 155 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Interview with the Assassin

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some sexuality and violence

Starring Edward Norton, Jessica Biel, Paul Giamatti, Rufus Sewell, and Eddie Marsan

Set in turn-of-the-centuy Vienna, this supernatural mystery combines romance, politics and magic. (Yari Film Group)

GENRE(S):	Adventure \| Drama \| Fantasy \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Neil Burger Steven Millhauser (short story Eisenheim the Illusionist)
DIRECTED BY:	Neil Burger
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 9, 2007 Theatrical: August 18, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	110 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

A lush piece of romanticism.

100

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Deserved an end-of-the-year prestige release, is a true work of art in a marketplace filled with velvet paintings. It's positively magical, the reason we loved movies in the first place.

Village Voice Bill Gallo

Beautifully acted and handsomely mounted, this gorgeous period piece is an intelligent and intriguing exploration of "the dark arts" -- less dependent on mere hocus-pocus than on the convincing journey of the soul undertaken by its hero.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

The less said about the twists and turns The Illusionist takes, the better. Suffice to say, Eisenheim's masterful deceptions do not stop when he exits the stage.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The Illusionist looks rigorously styled and measured, and every one of Norton's postures feels chosen. Yet the interesting actor has chosen so thoughtfully that we're riveted.

The Hollywood Reporter James Greenberg

Outstanding production values and mysterious subject matter give the film a surprisingly opulent feel for an independent Sundance entry.

Time Richard Corliss

By the end, the canniest viewers may not be fooled, but--and you can believe this--they may be mesmerized.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

This entertaining movie is content to be something a bit more modest: a pungent period folk tale that teases you until the very end.

Slate Dana Stevens

It's an exquisitely crafted period picture that keeps promising more and more as it goes along--smarter ideas, richer themes, spookier plot twists--and keeps delivering on every promise, right up until the rug-pulling and overly hasty final sequence.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The ending dispels a lot of the magic, but the silent-movie palette is gorgeous, and the film is worth seeing for the inspired hamming of Paul Giamatti as Vienna’s chief inspector, whose plummy tones made me sure I could hear the ghost of James Mason cackling.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

What Burger and his colleagues have done is to entrance us with a richly acted, beautifully produced story.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

This handsome, elegant and restrained fable about love, artifice and power in fin de siecle Vienna is lavishly imagined and yet oddly airless.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A rich and elegant film, full of sly, devious characters with complicated motives.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

This flight of fancy stays aloft on the power of its acting and its atmosphere.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Illusionist is like an overupholstered wing chair in the corner of a men's club -- you settle in only to be startled by how ridiculously comfy you are.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The Illusionist casts an exquisitely bewitching spell with its dreamy atmosphere and pervasive sense of suspense.

Premiere Jared Shimizu

A visual delight as well as an satisfying period drama.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

One of the strengths of The Illusionist: Everyone in it actually appears to be acting in the same era.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Edward Norton is at his best here, chalking up another boundary-stretching performance this year in the wake of the unfairly overlooked "Down in the Valley."

ReelViews James Berardinelli

An infectious mix of romance, mystery, and magic.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A bizarre story of intrigue, magic and murder in turn-of-the-century Vienna casts a considerable spell in The Illusionist.

Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman

It's important to keep in mind that little in The Illusionist is quite what it seems. That goes for the movie itself, fashioned from smoke, mirrors and, fortunately, Mr. Norton's magical performance.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Sewell and Giamatti ham it up as the imperious pretender to the throne and his ambitious but conflicted minion in this uncheesy but entertainingly tricky mystery. There's more heat between the two of them than between the sappy lovers.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

So beautiful to look at that it practically feels like a drug.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The movie also is designed to be an actor's showcase for Norton and Giamatti, two of the best movie actors of their generation. Each has his moments of fire, but some element is missing from the script that would make this duel of the titans riveting.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

An overly stately affair that often substitutes production values for imagination.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The results are reasonably clever and impeccably executed, but one of these days, Burger is going to have to pull more from his hat than just the rabbit.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Eisenheim's storybook romance with aristocrat Sophie (Jessica Biel), the childhood sweetheart now expected to become Leopold's princess, is the most compelling thing about a film that should dazzle the eye as much as stir the heart. It does not dazzle.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The picture feels like an entertaining short story, competently executed at undue length, and that's its origin.

Empire Olly Richards

It's not on a gasp-inducing making-the-Statue-Of-Liberty-disappear level, but with its opulent presentation and confident storytelling, The Illusionist has the power to keep an audience rapt like a good old-fashioned card trick.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The Illusionist might trick some moviegoers into thinking it's clever, deft, old-fashioned fun. But I urge those folks to stay home with a real classic romantic thriller on DVD or cable to remember the difference. This film doesn't even manage to breathe old life into the forms it apes.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The Illusionist is dogged by an inert, stale aura that overcomes everything and everyone in the movie.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

For a film meant to float on a gossamer veil of mystery, The Illusionist falls -- make that flops -- with quite the heavy thud. It's an intended piece of magic that plays like a ponderous slab of melodrama, sleight of hand gone ham-handed.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Rather than taking viewers on a twisty, provocative journey through a mazelike meditation on appearance and reality, The Illusionist finally just sits there, looking like a very well-produced pilot for PBS's "Mystery!" series. It's a sophisticated snooze.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

The movie is leaden and self-serious, with an unusually hollow performance from Norton, who's not for a moment convincing as a man of raging passion. Far better is Paul Giamatti.

Film Threat Jeremy Mathews

While it might have made a good short, as a feature film The Illusionist comes across like a magician whose tricks are transparent.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The film's moody, dark palette and soft, inchoate backgrounds tend to lull the senses rather than actively engage the viewer. The magic practiced by this illusionist does not extend to the screen.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 155 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Randall S gave it a9:
I thought this was an excellent and unique movie. Like others have said, the plot can be a bit hard to follow (I had to watch the climax thingy right at the end like three times) but it was intriguing and very well supported by the cast. Also, the movie was gorgeous. The setting was expertly crafted. It isn't often that you see movies set in the pre-WWI 20th century so that piece was refreshing by itself.

R. Lopez gave it a10:
There's one word that can describe this film, pure genius! this amazing period piece mystery stars Edward Norton as Eisenheim a traveling Illusionist who while doing a show in Vienna meets up with an old childhood sweetheart Sophie, she is know the fiancee of the crowned prince Leopold. The illusionist is a lavish film that is bathed in dark tones, and amazing cinematography. This film is much different them the Prestige a movie that came out in the exact same year, the Prestige deals with the three rules of a magician. While the illusionist doesn't it deals with mystery ,murder & deception. And it blends perfectly into such a way that this film will leave you absolutely stumped until the very end ( and I mean the very end!) Edward Norton turns in an oscar worthy performance as a mysterious traveling magician, and Paul Giamatti(also exceptional) proves he's just as good as the rest. This movie is one that you can enjoy over and over again, and no mater how many times you see it you still be in awe of the vast beauty of it all.

Maria gave it a4:
Hard to sit through. ed norton is so tiresome these days. and the script was dead. did he rewrite this script too?

Victoria gave it a10:
Beautiful cinematography, wonderful acting, and a delightful, atmospheric splendor of a movie; a romance in full bloom. I was enchanted and it's a movie that I will not forget too soon. There's no illusion here. This is the real deal.

Richard gave it a10:
I believe that this was possibly one of the best drama's of the year. It does however require the viewers to take some initiative in understanding the plot, which is not overly complex. Of course it was easy to understand what was going on in the story, however the hard part was trying to put the pieces of the movie together to understand how the illusionist was going to pull off his last trick. I give it a 10 out of 10 because I felt that the actors did a great job, the plot was great, and the cinematography was excellent. Unlike most movies lately, this one did not suck.

Fred B. gave it a9:
This movie was fantastic. Edward Norton was simply amazing and Jessica Biel was stunning. One of my top 5 movies.

Peter F. gave it a4:
Edward Norton doesn't phone in his performance, he sends it as an IM. How this great actor could give us such an uninspired, incoherent characterization is the only mystery worth pondering in this turgid film. And that dreadful accent! At least Paul Giamatti was there to act against type and make some interesting choices. But the best acting in the world could not save a tired script and hallmark-card lighting and set-design. Painful.

Illusionist, The Yari Film Group Releasing

Illusionist, The
Yari Film Group Releasing