A magician seeks a way back into a magical otherworld of belief. A policeman hunts for his missing daughter. The two are connected.
In some ways there is a nice sense of darkness and pain to Abraxas, and it has the potential to combine that with the innocence of childhood, and the wonder of magical worlds beyond our own. It has a decent sense of this conflict to it, but yet it never really develops that to a point where it totally satisfies. The effects are decent, the concept is sound, and the writing is not to bad to do what it is trying to do. For me though I found it really difficult to get through the barrier of the central character – or more specifically, the way he is played. With a terrible wandering accent, the magician is overplayed to his sense of wonder at the world, and as a result he is comedically theatrical in the way he comes over. This results in the film feeling uneven and constantly like it is shifting in terms of tone.
It seems harsh to put it all at the actor's door – and to be fair it isn't; the film had a writer, director and others making this play out this way. However the failure in the core character does mean the film never convinces, as the character is at best distracting and at worst annoyingly misjudged – not qualities you want in a film trying to combine darkness, innocence, and magic. There is a good film in here, but the failure to tie it all around a strong character and lead performance really does hurt it.
