The Illusionist

For those who loved to be amazed by the elusive world of magic The Illusionist takes it to the next level. In the way magicians keep their audiences on the edges of their seats so does The Illusionist. Based in Vienna in the early 1900's The Illusionist is a story of a poor young lad and his assent in the great world of magic.

Director Neil Burger uses the dark age of magic and puts that into shooting this film. Burger tackled a hard job in capturing the essence of a magician in a time when magic was roughly and unknown act. Edward Norton stars as Eisenheim, a world traveled magician who's magic compares to none other. Paul Giamatti plays Inspector Uhl, the police chief put in charge to find out how Eisenheim performs his magic. Rufus Sewell stars as Prince Leopold, who after being shown-up by Eisenheim trys to drive him out of business. What would a movie be without a leading lady? Jessica Biel tackles the roll of Sophie, a childhood friend of Eisenheim.

The story starts with Eisenheim as a grown man performing magic, but then are taken back to his humble beginnings as the son of a carpenter. Eisenheim befriends Sophie and the two are forced to be separted, which in turn drives the young man out of the country. The story comes back 15 years later and Eisenheim returns as a powerful magician with tricks that noone has ever seen. After clashing with the prince and the murder of his childhood friend, Eisenheim is forced to go to desperate measures to show the world who the prince really is.

The Illusionist has many twists and turns that just like a magic show has people guessing "How'd he do that?" The magic tricks are out of this world and it is amazing just how anyone could of thought these up. Norton does do most of his own magic tricks in the movie. Though The Illusionist seems like it should be a suspense/thriller which it is, there is just a little Romeo and Juliet underlining to it.

The Illusionist gets a 3 out of 5.

This is rental, but the magic tricks are definitely a must own.