2011, #10: The Illusionist

This year's "It's never heard of you, either" entry in the Best Animated Feature category is Sylvain Chomet's (The Triplets of Belleville) adaptation of an unproduced Jacques Tati screenplay. It's beautiful but very melancholy, and the storytelling loses a little something along the way. The titular magician has a companion; a young girl. She comes off as a needy, ungrateful little thing. In reading about the movie after the fact, it turns out that she apparently believes the main character to be doing something more than sleight-of-hand. Okay, so I misread her. Apparently she's only an idiot. Huh. In reading further, it seems Tati may have intended this film-to-be as a comment on his failed relationship with an illegitimate daughter. Ouch!