"Everything you have seen here has been an illusion."

A illusionist Eisenheim arrives to Vienna, and meets his first love. Because of this love, and his magic he gets a dangerous enemy: The Crown Prince Leopold, who has the police in his pocket, and wants them to arrest Eisenheim whenever they get the chance.

Movies about magicians always have that weird effect. You watch it, and you want to know how the tricks are done. Partially you know, that the tricks are made by using special effects. But of course the story needs to have some sort of explanation to the tricks and illusions, and that that explanation or answer is what the viewer craves for. Another good example of this is The Prestige. The Prestige keeps the viewer wondering how the tricks are done. The difference between The Prestige and The Illusionist is that The Prestige tells you what is behind the tricks. The Illusionist explains two tricks, and other one is only shown briefly in the book, and other one is explained simply by fast shots of previous events and the things we didn't yet see. 

First it felt like the sort of love triangle between Eisenheim, Leopold and the Duchess was unnecessary, like love triangles usually are. This time that wasn't the case though. The love triangle and events produced by that love triangle were necessary for the plot. If there wasn't a love triangle, the story would be different. Most of the plot twists are relying on the cruel nature of Leopold and his response to the romance between the Duchess and Eisenheim. If it wasn't for Leopold's acts, the story could not go the way it went. To be honest, the whole romance part of the movie at first seemed like it's going to be really unnecessary, but it was actually a great part of the film.

There is a lot of things in common with The Prestige and The Illusionist. Both take place around the same era, both include romance as an important part of the movie, and there's even a love triangle, which in The Prestige is actually much more complicated than that. But in The Prestige there are two magicians against each other. In The Illusionist, it's the crown prince / police against the magician. 

The actors in The Illusionist did a marvellous job. I had never seen Jessica Biel in a movie before, but I think she's very talented, however how can anyone judge after only one movie? You need to see at least two different roles until you can know if someone is good or not. 

The cinematography was also wonderful. Several scenes, if not most of the movie, seemed like it was filmed through a altered lens, but it probably also was made using special effects. That made many scenes look like they were flashbacks or otherwise like it was not happening at the same time as everything else. It was very nice, though it was not easy to notice. I can't say if it was for one or two scenes or through the whole movie. It could've been through the whole thing, but I doubt it. But it was at least used during the only sex scene in the movie, which was actually very classy and very well done. 

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

8 / 10