VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Kirpianuscus almost an rehabilitation of animation. warm, soft, delicate, touching. the animation of a beautiful grace, convincing message, charming characters, the old fashion animation. so, a revelation. because it propose a small story about kindness, sacrifice, joy and meaning of life. nothing new. nothing complicated. only a trip across images from past with the desire to reinvent the value of old virtues. an artist and a meeting. and the flavor of Bernard Tati's films. crumbs from movies with Charlot. and the smile with its bitter nuances. The Illusionist is only a challenge. for remind. for rediscover. for understand. or for to dream. because it has the precious gift to be pure story. not spectacular. not surprising. only modest tribute to the art of a great director. and window to a world who could seems be lost.

kshaharudin Chomet seems to have nailed his style from the days The Triplets of Belleville.He captures Scotland, in particular Edinburgh, so well that memories of walking around Arthur's Seat and the quirky characters found at the fringe festivals came flooding back.The artistry is truly beautiful with mostly hand-drawn animations and limited use of CGI techniques; but the color work, the color work is sublime.Storywise though, it's charming yet a little too melancholic for my tastes but Tati's comedic nuances and the attention to detail had me favor this over Belleville.

brchthethird As much as hand-drawn animation is being supplanted by computer animation, there are still artists who know the power of the art form and give us beautiful images that go along with great stories. Sylvain Chomet (LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE) has done just that with THE ILLUSIONIST (aka L'ILLUSIONNISTE, and not to be confused with the 2006 Edward Norton film). The story is rather simple. It is about an out-of-work French magician/illusionist who goes to Scotland and meets this young woman who is convinced that his "magic" is real. Over the course of the film, you see a friendship develop between them as his livelihood becomes less viable as a means of support and she comes into her own as a woman. Aiming for subtlety, there is hardly any dialogue (intelligible dialogue, at least) and the images are the primary driver of the story. It's also quite touching and heartfelt. You really feel for this aging man who sees the life he's built for himself as a magician grow smaller and smaller as people now go to the music halls to see rock bands instead of illusionists, ventriloquists and clowns. By the same token, the woman has to discover that the "magic" isn't what it appears to be and, in a sense, grow up. From a technical standpoint, the animation was just beautiful and a sight to behold. Sylvain Chomet has a very distinctive, impressionistic approach to character design that makes each frame look like it could be a watercolor painting. Also worth mentioning is that the film is based on an unpublished script by Jacques Tati. Although I've yet to see anything by him, the comedic sensibility on display here makes me want to do so really soon. When all is said and done, THE ILLUSIONIST is a mature, wonderfully animated film with plenty of humor and heart that every animation fan should see.

pmoonoak I must admit my cinematic prejudice up front: I prefer the faster pace of most American films. Having seen 'Belleville,' I was prepared for a) a visual masterpiece of hand-made animation, and b) the glacial tempo and somber mood of 'The Illutionist.' The characters mumble their way through a plot stretched so thin it becomes tedious. The minute details of travel, hotel rooms, and the streets of Scotland's capital are rendered so beautifully it almost makes up for the melancholy and ultimately deflating story. And I have to add, in all honesty, that many French films I've seen do not seem to know how to complete themselves, with awkward and abrupt endings that leave me dissatisfied. So it is with this film: lovely to look at, but little happens to engage my yearning for robust storytelling.