Review of The Illusionist (2009) by Spyros T — 12 Nov 2012

I preferred it to The Triplets of Belleville, which I also enjoyed. The first half is a really wonderful film with an underlying sense of depression and sadness. The second half is a goddamn sucker punch to the gut.

Even though Triplets of Belleville is more entertaining and delightful, The Illusionist has a strong emotional core that makes it the better of the two. Visually Chomet continues on from where he left off with Triplets only with more slice-of-life scenes and less grotesque weirdness.

There's plenty of beautiful, detailed imagery ranging from picturesque landscapes to extremely fluidly rendered character motion. There's also a few three-dimensional scenes that are absolutely breathtaking.

Also the score was rather beautiful and that the film owes much of its emotional weight to it. The ending with the note along with the ventriloquist dummy in the pawn store destroyed me. The Illusionist is one of the warmest, most lovingly crafted films I have ever seen, and almost certainly one of my favourite films of 2010.