As a professional Close-up Magician I am always being asked  if I perform Illusions, Magic or tricks. It is hard for me to answer as these terms have a different intrinsic meaning for every person who asks. Basically these terms are different words that describe the same thing; I suppose the only real difference between these terms is the inherent stylistic and methodological connotations that each of these words suggest (but fundamentally for performers they are different words for the same thing). Illusionist sounds cooler; remember this and you understand more than you ever need to. Below is my terse/unwanted review of The Illusionist:

I rarely like films about magic as they are usually an excuse for writers to add 10 billion plot twists; which ultimately doesn’t feel like successful/entertaining magic or satisfying/exiting storytelling. This film was watchable although a little slow and self-indulgent, it was well shot, well acted and maintained a sense of mystery throughout. Norton played a very convincing magician who had more power, subtlety and character than most ‘real’ working professional magicians (although this is not hard, most of them are just blokes in a suit pushed onto the stage and told to perform). The film is lacking in so many areas that Norton end up looking like he has brought a gun to a game of ‘thumb wars’. The plot is magical but thin, beautiful but slow, however it just about manages to piggybacks the viewer to the end. This being said, and I’m not sure why, but The Illusionist will linger in your mind like a form of mental indigestion. Aspects of this film are very beautiful (especially for a Sundance film entry) but ultimately it’s like having a fantastic roast dinner and swapping the beef for coco-pops and the cutlery for pencils.   6/10