Illusion (2004)

So much average

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I studied this film for my book "Fade to Gray: Aging in American Cinema" (2016) and found it entirely surprising. The divergent reviews that other users have shared do not surprise me; the low-budget production and emotional story are going to put off some less sophisticated viewers. Yet if you want a film that deals with the unusual subject of how to account for your life in old age (not like the films about middle-aged folks to which this is erroneously compared), then this is a sensitive and intriguing take on the subject.Kirk Douglas gives a compelling performance in his late 80s as a dying movie director confronting mystic visions of a son he never came to love, and perceptively conveys his cathartic liberation from egotism as he achieves grace in his final hours. Despite the limitations of the lengthy flashbacks to the son's life, the story comes together well, and anyone who is a parent can relate to the conclusion in which Douglas just wants his unknown son to be happy.Not many American films afford elder characters such dignified deaths. In fact, my co-author Nancy McVittie and I studied hundreds of U.S. films about older people and found very few that portrayed them dying with dignity (most of the time their deaths are dramatic and sensational, or more often, completely postponed or set off screen). This is the list we would count in the "dignified" category, although of course others are arguable:Heaven Can Wait (1943); Kim (1950); Little Big Man (1970); Being There (1979); Rocket Gibraltar; (1988); Meet Joe Black (1998); Big Fish (2003); The Bucket List (2007); Hannah Free (2009); Beginners (2010)

I do not know what or why Kirk Douglas or the innocent audience members could possibly have done to be punished to be held captive watching such amateurish drivel of a script and performances. Mr. Douglas despite his speech impediment due to his stroke is still light years away from this excercise in complete inanity and is the only bright spot in the whole proceedings. The script's contrivances are so obvioous that they cause unexpected laughter. When your main hero is a clod and heroine a cloddess there is very little to root for along with such arch melodramatics from the varied clichéd antoganists ie: performance arts villain, corporate nerd villain and gas station meanie villain. It gives one hope that death will release all of us from this hideous collection of vignettes that are suppose to give us a morality tale to take to heart. I would advise to take to the hills if ever you meet this mess of a movie again!

The concept of our lives somehow being recorded by some celestial camera and ready for viewing at Judgment Day is an old one. What distinguishes Illusion is that there is no judgment except the one in your own mind as life on this plane ends. That's what is happening to legendary film director Kirk Douglas as his life ends. During some dream he's visited by the ghost of a former film editor passed away long ago. And they go to the movies and see a life of his estranged son played by film creator Michael Goorjian and his pursuit of the love of his life Karen Tucker.In the end Douglas asks for a different ending to the film and some heavenly editing.Illusions is an ambitious undertaking and while it doesn't totally succeed there's enough there for us to enjoy and appreciate life. God knows we all look back at things we might have done differently, would we could edit out portions of our lives. In fact I'm not sure of an autobiography exists where the author is 100% truthful.Goorjian and Douglas give wonderful performances. And Kirk did come back to do one more. But I think in many ways this is an epitaph film for him.

The "Illusion" reminds me of Cinema Paradiso and Broadway Danny Rose in that it challenges the viewer to suspend its belief and follow the fantasy of second chances and missed opportunities. This is done in an effective manner with the main characters played by Kirk Douglas and Mike Goorjian.The challenges of the film are evident in how much to show both the viewer and Douglas' character without giving away the whole truth. Goorjian's character is consistently interesting in that with no direct intervention of a patriarch, he is destined to attack life in unconventionally original ways. An example of this is the wooing of his first and only love by round-robin poetry. Douglas is very engaging, searching for his son through the only medium which he can relate-cinema. Understandably, neither character changes, until the very end. It is a sad statement on the affairs of father/son relationships. Not being able/unwilling to relate seems to be the common theme in this film. However, when it counts, a true father's voice will always ring loud and clear. The performances are consistent and distant at the same time. This is clearly a complex film which simply describes lost relationships rediscovered in the only medium that can truly impacts everyone. Yet its appeal can translate to all ages. This film should be seen all and I feel that Kirk Douglas may finally have found his first Oscar.