7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 4.7 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
An ageing Paris illusionist sees his career under threat from the increasing popularity of cinema and pop music. No longer able to find an audience for his card tricks and rabbit-out-of-a-hat routine, he takes to the road in the hope of earning a living elsewhere. When he travels to an isolated community in Scotland, he meets a girl who is convinced that he is a real magician, and a special bond develops between the two.
Starring: Jean-Claude Donda, Eilidh Rankin, Duncan MacNeil, James T. Muir, Tom UrieAnimation | 100% |
Period | 38% |
Drama | 32% |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
BD-Live
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The Illusionist, a film crafted from a work penned by French filmmaker Jacques Tati in the mid-1950s, plays as if a metaphor for life, a film rich with exposition yet crafted from only the bare essentials. Given a somewhat emotionally uplifting but at the same time physically somber tone, constructed of relatively crude old-fashioned style animation, and practically free of dialogue -- all giving the film a nontraditional structure -- The Illusionist plays with an unusual but alluring style, and the sheer absence of anything but the most basic of storytelling essentials seems to emphasize the greater purposes of the story. Director Sylvain Chomet, the French director who last dazzled audiences with his 2003 animated picture The Triplets of Belleville, has crafted in The illusionist a modern masterwork of simplified storytelling that yields incredibly deep and purposeful emotional and thematic relevancies. The Illusionist is, stylistically, a pleasantly straightforward experience, but the richness of the film lies in the subtleties that are sometimes lost or difficult to find in more complex films but that are instead here easily recognized, though they still do not dominate the story. Smart, touching, thought-provoking, and infinitely meaningful in so many ways, The Illusionist is a grand film that's sure to not disappear but rather continue to dazzle audiences with its almost magical sensibilities that simply but honestly and completely comment on life and humanity in an enlightening and mesmerizing fashion.
Keeping up with the times, or trying to, anyway.
The Illusionist pulls a perfect 1080p transfer out of its sleeve. This is a wonderfully handsome image, and even though the animation isn't particularly drool-worthy in the same way some flashy CGI cartoon might be, it is exquisitely rendered on Blu-ray. A black and white open quickly gives way to a color presentation that remains for the rest of the film. Colors aren't exactly vibrant by design -- the film can be somewhat dark, in fact -- but yellows, reds, and blues can really pop in the brightest scenes. Detail is as strong as the source allows; the only softness seems inherent to the orignal animation, and this Blu-ray captures every nuance to be found in each frame. There's nothing here even remotely unpleasant to look at; whether bright stages or dreary overcast skies, candle-lit interiors or sun-drenched kitchens, the transfer handles a wide range of material nicely. No banding, no blocking, no nothing except for the image in its purest form. This is a wonderful transfer from Sony.
The Illusionist dazzles with a proficient DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Dialogue is practically nonexistent, consisting of a few bouts of gibberish and simple, usually single, words, but the center speaker delivers whatever syllables might be tossed out there with ease. The track delivers an excellent spatial sensation at the theater at the beginning of the movie; there's pitch-perfect reverberation effects and a smattering of applause that are heard here and there around the listening area. Music is, in this scene, deliberately tinny and weak as seemingly played through an old phonograph, completing the sensation of sitting in the audience. It's a great little sonic segment. General music reproduction through the rest of the film is wide, clear, and natural in feel. A few scenes of passing traffic add some nicely aggressive directional effects for a few moments, and a steady falling rain subtly but accurately envelops the listening area. The track is rounded into form by good, subtle bass accompanying music and a few sound effects, particularly as evidenced by the wonderfully realistic thump thump thump of dancers stomping on a wooden floor in chapter three; LFE casually but realistically pulsates through the listening area with every footfall. The track isn't exhaustively loud or aggressive, but it's wonderfully solid and pretty much perfect for what it is.
Unfortunately, The Illusionist arrives on Blu-ray with only a trace amount of short extras.
The Illusionist is a deeply moving film. It's not hard to see what it's really about, but digesting its themes and what they really mean remains a great challenge. The greater focus on the themes and emotions by way of leaving out everything but the most basic of storytelling components is a welcome diversion from today's loud and scattered films that tuck meaning away behind the superficialities, if they hold meaning at all. Not so with The Illusionist. "Simplistically complex" is perhaps an apt descriptor of Director Sylvain Chomet's masterpiece. It's a film with a high replay value for its emotional and thematic resonance, and it seems it's the sort of movie where whatever one takes away from it is the proper interpretation. It's a film with no right or wrong answers, but it's an involving and moving masterwork that speaks loudly despite saying nary a word. Sony's Blu-ray release of The Illusionist features flawless video, wonderful audio, and a few supplements. Highly recommended.
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