The Illusionist: Critic Reviews

Screenwriter-director Neil Burger capitalizes on Norton's strengths quite well.

Neil Burger's screen adaptation of a short story by Steven Millhauser gives Edward Norton a role that perfectly fits his disturbing inscrutability.

In its unassuming way, the film shows that reality is more mystifying than illusion.

The alluring and absorbing Illusionist proves that a film need not be mindless fluff or ridiculously far-fetched to qualify as escapist entertainment.

The Illusionist is that rarity in the dog days of summer, a movie made for grown-ups, which is what makes it that much more disappointing.

The pleasure of The Illusionist lies in its luxuriant belief in old-fashioned verities like character and storytelling; it's as thin as a sheet of marbled endpaper and as cleanly crafted.

These resolutely old-fashioned elements might not work at all in a less well-crafted movie. But this entertaining tale of wizardry and lost love vaporizes even our most serious doubts.

It does not dazzle.

The ludicrous climax, full of run-that-by-me-again flashbacks delivered at Keystone-cop speed -- oh, if only he could make that disappear.

For a film about magic, The Illusionist doesn't depend on tricks up its sleeve. It's more about artfulness, from handsome period details and Philip Glass' urgent score to an intriguing and vibrant plot.

The Illusionist works magic and illusion with romantic panache.

A pleasant diversion serious enough to offer a little soul.

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.

Crisply acted by a cast murmuring, in low tones, about truth and illusion, The Illusionist overcomes the major obstacle in films (and there haven't been many) about the world of stage magicians.

A lush piece of romanticism -- a tale of enchantment set in turn-of-the-century Vienna.

Conjures up a world of mystery, romance and suspense.

Because the plot spins out in such a smooth fashion and the acting is so darned good, we're distracted from the film's flaws.

A richly textured and very entertaining movie that actually knows the value of telling a good story with skill, precision and excitement.

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

This is the kind of thoughtful, poetic, lush and old-fashioned (in the best sense of the word) film that rarely gets made anymore -- one that immerses us in a bygone world for a couple of hours.

Norton is a magnetic and mysterious center to the piece, boring his eyes through the screen with his intensity.

This terrific romantic thriller, set in 1900 Vienna, is an outstanding example of frugality in the service of art.

I have vague recollections of some of the actors' trying too hard, and of places where the story dragged like a tired peacock's tail. But ultimately, by God, I succumbed to the picture's faux-laudanum haze.

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.