Hey there guys, John here. Many of you will remember Sharon Dewit as a semi-regular guest on The Audio Edtion. Well… she is now down living in Los Angeles and will be contributing to the site from time to time. Here is her quick review of The Illusionist:
The Illusionist is very good at keeping you guessing. Throughout the entire thing I kept wondering, is it going to be cliché? It is not, it is a delight. The Illusionist is a period piece centered around illusionist Eisenheim and his love; the Duchess Sophie, sappy magic love story, right? Not quite, this is far more of a mystery than a love story (and not the M. Night Shymalan mystery type either). With ease and slight of hand director Neil Burger is able to entertain and mystify while still keeping the story moving towards a fantastic ending. This is a well made film with great performances, the best cinematography I’ve seen all year and with Phillip Glass doing the musical scores well it definitely has the right tone.
Edward Norton is very good as the Illusionist Eisenheim, the delicious Jessica Biel exudes a presence on screen that is both intelligent and dead sexy as the Duchess Sophie, poor Rufus Sewell is going to be pissed off at how hard it is to find a date after playing the frightening Crown Prince Leopold so well and If Paul Giamatti isn’t nominated for an Oscar again for his performance as the “not completely” corrupt the Chief of Police I will be very surprised. When the movie ended in the theater I was watching it in the entire audience clapped, this is a good sign my friends.
The only bad thing I can say about this film is a common complaint I’ve had for a lot of films this year and that is (oh boy here I go being a girl again) the makeup. I could see it caked on pool Paul Giamatti’s head like too much foundation on a prom queen’s acne and since this is a period piece I don’t think that Jessica Biel needs to have lip gloss perfectly placed into the center of her beautiful lips for every scene, it’s distracting. Makeup aside from a scale of one to ten I give this film a 9 and as for a no, go or routh, it is a definite routh.
