Reviews: The Wicker Man & The Illusionist

The Wicker Man: Anyone who knows me, knows I love Nicolas Cage. Always have. So, needless to say, I was excited for this one, because a) Nicolas Cage, b) horror movie, and c) Pacific Northwest (which tends towards the wonderful when it comes to creepy settings). I wasn't expecting brilliance, but I was expecting to be thoroughly entertained.

Unfortunately, I was not.

This is not to say that the movie was completely devoid of merit. Director Neil LaBute has quiet, subtle way with his direction that can be very unsettling and effective, the cinematography was stunning, and some of the performances were quite good (Nicolas Cage's, as always, as well as Molly Parker, whose brief turn as the island's school teacher was a wicked treat). Other performances, however, flagged. Kate Beahan, lovely though she may be, was completely unconvincing in her plight, and Leelee Sobieski's presence was poorly executed in a role that seemed inexplicable and unnecessary in the first place, one of many problems in a script fraught with problems. The required suspension of disbelief went far beyond even my breaking point, and the "surprising" twists and turns were anything but. There was no real connection to any of the characters, leaving the viewer pretty ambivalent about the suspenseless conclusion. Worth a watch on cable, but save yourself nine bucks and see something else on your next trip to the theater. Maybe something like...

The Illusionist: I loved this movie. It did so many things right that I find it difficult to focus on its few missteps. It's a stunning picture, visually, painted in muted sepia and blue tones, evoking from frame one a great sense of the period. The costuming shares in this aesthetic, beautiful and rich while remaining subdued. Accenting this is the occasional vignetting of the screen, making you feel as if the physical film itself is as aged as the story.

Edward Norton's turn as Eisenheim, the title illusionist in question, was nothing short of brilliant. Simultaneously understated and powerful, he sucks you straight into a character that you really know very little about. I could see it happening where such a reserved, private character (who, make no mistake, remains so throughout the film) might seem inaccessible or distant to viewers, but Norton's performance and Neil Burger's direction bring you directly into his world. Paul Giamatti is tremendously good as the curious chief inspector, charged with bringing Eisenheim down, carefully balancing his sense of duty to the prince with a sense of moral right, creating a very believable character. Rufus Sewell is a bit over the top as the aforementioned prince, stopping just shy of twirling his evil moustache in the midst of his plotting, and Jessica Biel is (though lovely) a bit bland, but both performances remain healthily adequate and their shortcomings do not detract from the film as a whole.

In a film called The Illusionist, one would be disappointed if there weren't a few twists and turns along the way, and there definitely were a handful here. For my part, I felt they were a bit predictable, but the movie's genius comes in in that it doesn't matter. The what isn't as important as the how, and that suspension remains tremendously high throughout. This movie won an instant spot on my top five of the year, and I highly recommend seeing it in the theaters, particularly before it's nudged from the limelight by it's bigger budget cousin, The Prestige, later this fall.