I will watch any movie with Edward Norton. I will watch any movie with Paul Giamatti. I love movies set in historical time periods. Vienna is one of my favorite cities. The Illusionist, starring Edward Norton as Eisenheim the illusionist and Paul Giamatti as Inspector Uhl, is set in turn-of-the-century (20th century) Vienna.

The story is told from the point of view of Inspector Uhl and is mostly presented in a series of flashbacks. The cinematography is amazing. It really draws you in with the old-world feel through deep, saturated colors. And my favorite city of Vienna is absolutely gorgeous in this film. For me it is such eye-candy to get to enjoy. Even though it is not a true mystery movie, it plays that way because we are left wondering if the magicians powers are real or just magic. I first heard about this movie while listening to an interview on NPR. It was described as the movie being an illusion about an illusionist. I loved it. I even watched it a second time to listen to the the audio commentary on the DVD which was great. Most of the “illusions” that were performed in the film were not digital. They real illusions were recreated and then filmed. The DVD commentary explained how all of the illusions were created and it is really interesting.