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Illusionist, The
Yari Film Group Releasing
FILM:
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.
90
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.
88
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.
83
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.
80
The Hollywood Reporter
James Greenberg
Outstanding production values and mysterious subject matter give the film a surprisingly opulent feel for an independent Sundance entry.
80
Time
Richard Corliss
By the end, the canniest viewers may not be fooled, but--and you can believe this--they may be mesmerized.
80
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.
80
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.
80
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.
80
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
What Burger and his colleagues have done is to entrance us with a richly acted, beautifully produced story.
75
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.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
A rich and elegant film, full of sly, devious characters with complicated motives.
75
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
This flight of fancy stays aloft on the power of its acting and its atmosphere.
75
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.
75
USA Today
Claudia Puig
The Illusionist casts an exquisitely bewitching spell with its dreamy atmosphere and pervasive sense of suspense.
75
Premiere
Jared Shimizu
A visual delight as well as an satisfying period drama.
75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
One of the strengths of The Illusionist: Everyone in it actually appears to be acting in the same era.
75
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."
75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
An infectious mix of romance, mystery, and magic.
70
Variety
Todd McCarthy
A bizarre story of intrigue, magic and murder in turn-of-the-century Vienna casts a considerable spell in The Illusionist.
70
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.
70
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.
70
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
So beautiful to look at that it practically feels like a drug.
67
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.
67
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
An overly stately affair that often substitutes production values for imagination.
67
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.
63
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.
63
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
The picture feels like an entertaining short story, competently executed at undue length, and that's its origin.
60
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.
58
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.
50
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
The Illusionist is dogged by an inert, stale aura that overcomes everything and everyone in the movie.
50
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.
50
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.
40
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.
40
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.
40
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 152 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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