--- title: "The Illusionist: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-illusionist/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/the-illusionist" critics_score: 84 critics_reviews: 16 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Illusionist (2010): what the critics said Critics' score 84 from 16 reviews: 16 positive, 0 mixed, 0 negative. The reviews are uniformly positive, and they praise the same things. Most critics single out Sylvain Chomet’s hand-drawn animation, the rendering of 1950s Edinburgh and the film’s debt to Jacques Tati, whose unproduced screenplay it adapts. The word that recurs is melancholy: nearly every critic describes a gentle, near-silent story about an ageing magician and a dying music-hall trade, and most find the sadness earned rather than laid on. The detail of the drawing, the mood music and the sense of place come up again and again. The reservations are small and scattered rather than shared. A few critics note that it is downbeat rather than funny; The Hollywood Reporter calls it a rarefied adult cartoon rather than a comedy. Film Comment thinks the Tati mimicry works better in small doses. Nobody dislikes it. The spread runs from good to glowing, with the warmest notices from the British press and festival reviewers and the more measured ones from the specialist magazines. ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Rating 4/4. 12 January 2011. The film is a magically melancholy extension of Jacques Tati’s career, with Chomet’s animation capturing the magician’s quiet grace and body language in a delicate, whimsical story of fading relevance and quiet devotion. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-illusionist-2011) ## Time Out — David Jenkins Rating 5/5. 17 August 2010. A warmly nostalgic, near-silent comedy about the decline of music hall that stands as one of the year’s most immaculately constructed and heartbreaking releases. Chomet joins the masters of modern animation with this gorgeous visual poem on dreams, parental responsibility and sleight of hand. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-illusionist) ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 16 February 2010. Festival review. Chomet’s follow-up to The Triplets of Belleville brings an unproduced Tati screenplay to life with superb hand-drawn imagery and evocative sound design in a bittersweet valentine to the music-hall tradition. The visually rewarding film, free of dialogue, should earn widespread critical praise and arthouse play. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-illusionist/5010672.article) ## The AV Club — Noel Murray Rating A-. 11 September 2010. Festival review. Chomet’s adaptation of Tati’s screenplay follows a magician whose style is fading, paying homage to classic filmmakers while filling the story with illusions both grand and petty. It is one beautiful movie full of its own life, striking a deep chord with its melancholy yet ambiguous ending. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/tiff-10-day-2-1798221650) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 19 August 2010. The critic praises Sylvain Chomet's hand-drawn animation as an affectionate homage to Jacques Tati, describing it as distinctive, beguiling and deeply felt with emotional pain. The film is singled out for its ability to bring the 1950s vividly to life through simple, old-style animation and its loving depiction of Edinburgh. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/aug/19/the-illusionist-review) ## Empire — Helen O’Hara Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 21 July 2010. This mature, near-wordless story of loss and grief is also funny and heartfelt, an elegy to a dying time played out against impeccably realised Edinburgh settings. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/illusionist-2-review/) ## Slant Magazine — Bill Weber Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 20 December 2010. Paying painterly homage to Tati, the film envelops viewers in artful animation and a quaint world but heads toward melancholy rather than charm. It achieves a misty-eyed unity in eulogizing an extinct era of entertainment through its tender, downbeat tribute. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-illusionist-5214/) ## The Independent Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 26 June 2010. Festival review. The film is a gentle animated homage to Jacques Tati and a love letter to Edinburgh, full of melancholic tenderness and handcrafted quality. [Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/edinburgh-international-film-festival-2011312.html) ## The New York Times — Manohla Dargis Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 24 December 2010. Chomet’s adaptation is a modest homage to Tati and a melancholy look at a lost world of music halls, brought to life with delicate visual style, tender humor, and tactile detail in its nostalgic evocation of shabby theaters and the illusionist’s charm. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/movies/24illusion.html) ## Variety — Leslie Felperin Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 16 February 2010. Festival review. Chomet’s sophomore outing is a delightful marriage of Tati’s and his own sensibilities in a charming tale of a French conjuror befriending a naive lass, thrilling in its retro pencil-and-watercolor aesthetics and old-school magic. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2010/digital/markets-festivals/the-illusionist-1117942211/) ## Evening Standard Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2012. Chomet’s charming, beautifully drawn animation tells a gentle, almost melancholic story in the style of Tati, making for a cherishable experience with lovely mood music. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/tati-magic-to-cherish-from-the-illusionist-7421268.html) ## Film Comment — Nicolas Rapold Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 November 2010. The review praises Chomet's scaled-down, melancholic follow-up to The Triplets of Belleville as an ambitious study centered on an aging magician supporting a young girl in Edinburgh. It highlights the Tati-inspired humor and nostalgia but notes the mimicry works better in small doses. [Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/short-takes-the-illusionist-review/) ## Sight and Sound — Anton Bitel Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 September 2010. Chomet's follow-up to Belleville Rendez-vous adapts an unproduced Tati script into a melancholic, near-silent animation about an ageing magician and his young ward in 1950s Edinburgh. The film excels in its bittersweet exploration of obsolescence, time and the fading music-hall era through exquisite hand-drawn visuals. [Read the review](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/5598) ## The Hollywood Reporter — Kirk Honeycutt Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 14 October 2010. Festival review. The film is a downbeat, rarefied adult cartoon rather than a comedy, based on an unproduced Tati screenplay about an aging magician and a young girl. The real beauty lies in the gorgeous hand-drawn animation, cityscapes, and burnished colors that pay loving tribute to Tati. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/illusionist-film-review-29358/) ## Eye for Film — Andrew Robertson Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 16 June 2010. Festival review. Wistful, melancholic and beautiful, the film blends gentle humour with a keen eye for detail in its Tati-inspired tale of a fading illusionist. Scotland and Edinburgh are rendered with charm and oddity that enhances the sense of place and wonder. [Read the review](http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-illusionist-film-review-by-andrew-robertson) ## HeyUGuys — Martyn Warren Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 19 June 2010. Festival review. Chomet's follow-up to The Triplets of Belleville is his best yet, with beautiful hand-drawn animation mixed with computer effects that captures the 1959 setting perfectly. The visual storytelling and character designs stand out as particularly strong. [Read the review](https://www.heyuguys.com/the-illusionist-review-edinburgh-film-festival/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/the-illusionist.md