Not Netflix

Julio and Yo! Adrienne rung us up last eve to go see The Illusionist at The Historic Senator Theater. They treated us because they'd received our wedding gifts that day--which was nice but entirely unnecessary.

The Illusionist is a beautiful but vacuous film. Like The Sixth Sense, it relies on the audience not noticing an obvious twist. Almost everyone in the theater knew what the twist was about 45 minutes in, and the film tried extremely hard to convince us we'd guessed incorrectly, before admitting finally that indeed our suspicions were correct all along. I hate that not-so-surprising surprise.

But I like Ed Norton, and Paul Giamatti was better than I'd seen him in a while, and Jessica Biel has certain charms. The film manages a gorgeous re-creation of Victorian age Europe along the lines of Topsy-Turvy or Finding Neverland (though those are superior films whereas The Illusionist is merely a fun movie). And Spiritualism is fun to boot. I enjoyed it as a sort of well-made light escapism.

Also, it's a good idea to see as many films at The Senator as possible. Who knows when that fantastic resource may simply fade away?