movie thoughts: 'The Illusionist'

[orangerful]

Stephen King said that of the two movies that came out this year about magicians in olden times, this one was his favorite.



We came to the conclusion that whichever one you saw first would be your favorite, as I think I still prefer 'The Prestige' over this one.

But they are two very different films, and both very good! And it's not really fair to compare the two, but since they were released so close together, it's hard not to!

But anyway.

'Illusionist'is, at it's very core, a romance.  Eisenheim (the Illusionist) wants toget his woman (almost-a-Duchess Sophie) back.  Paul Giamatti plays theinspector trying to figure out who these tricks are performed, whetherit's Eisenheim making an orange tree grow on stage, to the more invovled "illusions" we see later.  Rufus Sewell plays Prince Leopold,an clearly off-balance man who is threatened by Eisenheim's mystery.

The plot moves very quickly.  Like 'Prestige', the story is told in a somewhat non-linear way.  We start out at the end, and then flashback(though it's pretty much linear after we get the childhood story out ofthe way). 

The film is set in Vienna, Austria, so everyone is doing an accent, and I think they all did a relatively good job.  At least, I didn't feel distracted by the accents.

As with 'Prestige', I can't say too much, for fear that I'll give something away.  It was a beautiful movie, well-paced and well acted. But while I enjoyed it, I don't know if I will want to watch it over and over.  Definately worth the rental fee though. And grab a bag of popcorn while you're at it.

Comments

[demonqueen666.livejournal.com]

You might be right about the whole "whichever you saw first" thing, since I for one saw The Illusionist first, and I like that one a bit better. But they're both nice films...although, at the same time, I feel they have the same problem in that they have a low rewatch value because of the "mystery" element to their storyline. At least, I know I didn't enjoy The Illusionist quite as much the second time.

But, as long as I'm talking to you, could you do me a favor? I think I have some icons you made in my current rotation, and I'm trying to get better about crediting, so if you could just take a peek and let me know?

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

see, I'm leaning toward 'Prestige' because it stayed with me longer. The reveal at the end changed how things at the start of the story could be read. Of course, since we were stuck in Hugh Jackman's head for most of 'Prestige' it kept things a bit more mysterious. I guess we were in Inspector Uhl's head for 'Illusionist' but after the reveal, I didn't feel the need to rewatch the film to see if I could catch anything new.

Okay, Icon-ness, let me see...I'm looking at your userpics now and these are the ones that are my creations:
Illyria gone
buffy whatever
tara dawn outsiders
runaways secret (I need to make more runaways icons!!!)
shannon alone
last unicorn

Also, I can tell you the Staler & Waldorf icon "Mockery Serious Business" was made by snarkel

Hope that helps. :)