Lori and I saw this movie last night and we enjoyed it much! I don’t want to give away much about the movie but here are a few quick thoughts on the film.
The movie is able to effectively portray the suspense and excitement of Houdini type illusionists (the non-Amazing Jonathan / TV Magicians types). Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti (the two biggest reasons why I wanted to see the movie) are two amazingly strong character actors who perform their characters so well you can easily immerse yourself in them. Ed Norton’s character is so mysterious and interesting!
The look of the film was enhanced greatly by the use of good period costumes, props and sets, great art direction and cinematography and finally though the use of subtle special effects.
The film is a bit long (almost 2 hours) and can be considered slow moving but really I didn’t notice these two points until after the movie was over so that’s a good thing!
Overall, it’s an interesting and mysterious movie which was able to convey the look and mood extremely well. I think it’s worth seeing in a decent theater with working SOUND, as it’s mostly dialogue!.