Movie Review: The Illusionist (no spoilers)

kestrell and I went out to see this yesterday. Most excellent film, if difficult to talk about. One can safely say that it is set in early 20th century Vienna, and that it involves magic of (at least) the stage variety. Past that, it is a Schrodinger's Puzzle Box of a film -- the genre(s) that it actually belongs to do not become entirely clear until the final minutes of the movie. At various times, it looks like it will be Period Melodrama, or Fantasy, or Science Fiction, or a Colombo-style murder mystery. The uncertainty is part of its charm.

The theater we saw it in had the projector slightly out of focus -- normally that bugs me a great deal, but in a movie like this, it strangely worked. For those that like such things, the production design is sumptuous. All in all, highly recommended.

Movie Review: The Illusionist (no spoilers)

kestrell and I went out to see this yesterday. Most excellent film, if difficult to talk about. One can safely say that it is set in early 20th century Vienna, and that it involves magic of (at least) the stage variety. Past that, it is a Schrodinger's Puzzle Box of a film -- the genre(s) that it actually belongs to do not become entirely clear until the final minutes of the movie. At various times, it looks like it will be Period Melodrama, or Fantasy, or Science Fiction, or a Colombo-style murder mystery. The uncertainty is part of its charm.

The theater we saw it in had the projector slightly out of focus -- normally that bugs me a great deal, but in a movie like this, it strangely worked. For those that like such things, the production design is sumptuous. All in all, highly recommended.