Great Film overall

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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)

If you were disappointed with 'Pride and Prejudice', fell asleep during 'The New World' and tried to get your money back from watching 'Elizabethtown' then you will be very well entertained by illusion. I was hooked about seven minutes into it when Mr. Baines (Douglas) reveals his notion of what romance is in film and literature. 'Illusion' only continues deliver. There are nougats of wisdom spread throughout an aesthetically rich canvas. Whenever there is a brief moment where you feel a line is too cinematically familiar there will be this raw emotion spilling out and for the first time you believe the words, because you feel the pain. The film is thick with visual and auditory nuances that make this movie a must-see-again, (i. e. notice how Cristopher always carries that same wallet in the same pocket and his pants will always be more worn in the same corner). There are mini-movies inside the movie each so different from the other yet with reoccurring themes. Plus, the soundtrack was awesome, even though I didn't recognize any of the songs. Oh, and also Christopher aged seamlessly. Lately it seems as though American film has had yearning for the extreme. As if the only ones worthy of their story being told on screen are those uncommonly brave in extraordinarily difficult situations who decide to take the difficult route. This is a film about average people who are in coincidental but plausible circumstances and who take the easy way out most of the time. These are things we all do. This is a story we have all lived; what makes this story special is that it was told by a spectacular cast and overseen by an incredible director with a vision of where American Cinema should be heading.

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.

I was privileged to see this film. Centered on the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, showing the poignancy of love held at a distance by circumstance, choice and fate, Baines [KD] and his son Christopher [MG] are trapped in a perfect play all taking place in one afternoon; a lifetime taking place in a canned film tragedy. Nonetheless, the other filmic choice, comedy, is also refused. No one ends as a clown, fool, nor failure. The film maker holds us in a limnal [threshold] space between tragedy and ultimate loss and comedy and a happy ending by allowing the healing connection to release one hero [KD] into Death and one [MG] into Life and Love. Although, this is a film about a film maker, the actors live their parts, rather then play them, so as Renee says, bring tissues. This film is a guy weepie that speaks to the painful gulf between fathers and sons, and also, the gulf men create when they cannot find their way in the world and find love at the same time. Yet, Love finds all. See it.