Review of The Illusionist (2009) by Mikael K — 20 Apr 2011

What a disappointment. Not that the other negative audience reviews get it right. The movie's badness lies not in the fact it's depressing, or child-unfriendly, or slow. It's that Chomet/Tati bung the thing with so many nostalgic cliches and wretched nullities for characters, and that they do so without wit or invention.

Apart from the truly wonderful physical landscapes, twilit trains, etc., the movie is truly joyless. I found it impossible to indulge the director in his embarrassing attempts at pathos - e.g., the steadily devalued ventriloquist's doll whose pawnshop price tag finally reads "Free" - in light of, among other things, the loathsome, apparently brain-damaged girl.

Or the hapless and indifferent - he hardly seems to care for her, and good on him - illusionist himself. Yeah, I got the class-war criticism embedded in the movie, but it's only effective if you entertain, and - more to the point - make your bourgeois types show their discreet charm.

The girl was simply a demanding, charmless bundle of material cravings, one who didn't even get it when the nature of the "illusion" became obvious - i.e., when she inadvertently found the shoes she just had to have, and which were obviously bought and not conjured, in the magician's dressing room.

I'm kind of freaked out that so many people/critics actually like this movie; I can only assume they've been emotionally sucker-punched by Frenchness, nostalgia, and Ye Olde Animation.