The Illusionist

Sundays are often movie days for me - and almost always, I see Sunday movies with my friend Heather. It's often a negotiation - today I didn't want to see a sad movie, and she didn't want to see a shoot'em up so we settled for Ed Norton and Paul Giametti in The Illusionist.

And I liked it - more than Heather did, I expect. I love Norton and Giametti so the movie was going to be hard-pressed to make me dislike it. And they were both their usual outstanding selves. The movie - from a short story by Steven Millhauser - was interesting, political in a way I hadn't expected. An evil ruler, a police officer stuck in the middle of his machinations, a man with a mission. If you like complicated plots, love stories and illusion (and not just on the stage), I bet you'll like this movie.

Most of it is set in Vienna in the 1800s and it's really beautiful - lovely sets and costumes. I'd put it on the see it if you can list.

And I noticed in the previews that there's also a movie being made of one of my favorite books - P.D. James' book The Children of Men - now Ms. James generally, as you know, writes murder mysteries (wonderful complex literary mysteries) but this book is outstanding. It's one of those near future books that's really quite frightening - because the possibilities seem so real and almost upon us. I can hardly wait. I've read the book half a dozen times since it came out - Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine - it looks like it's going to be great.

I think I'm back into movie mode - I love movies and try and see as many of them as I can. But because it's also usually a social thing for me, the summer is always a little harder with people being away so much - including me. But now September's almost here - I bet I'll see a lot more movies and I'll let you know what I see and how I like them.

Kate