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"The Illusionist" an act worth seeing
Movie Review: The Illusionist
By Brett Troxler
btroxler@wbrz.com
Web Producer
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The magician may have a myriad of tricks, but it will take the most impressive illusion of them all to recapture the love of his youth.
After leaving his home at a young age, Eisenheim returns to Vienna only to encounter the object of his childhood affection, Sophie (Jessica Biel), once again. Known as Edward as a child, Eisenheim met Sophie one day while practicing one of his tricks. The two became friends and closer friends still, despite the fact they were separated by their social stature. Sophie was eventually forbidden to see Edward, but the two would meet secretly to fantasize about running away together.
They never got the chance. Edward’s failed attempt to make Sophie disappear in childhood makes him all the more determined now that he has a second opportunity.
This time around he has to deal with Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) to whom Sophie is engaged. Leopold is a rash man known widely for his ill treatment of women. With aspirations to take over the empire and with Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) safely in his pocket, Leopold's downfall is his controlling nature and insistence on knowing everything. He orders Uhl to put an end to Eisenheim’s act after he’s shown up by the magician at a private show.
The film begins rather abruptly, as you are thrown headfirst into the theatre where Eisenheim is performing one of his illusions. You stay here a moment before being brought back through time so that the situation you find the characters in can be explained. One awkward part is when the "The Illusionist" replays one of these initial scenes near the end of the film. Things don’t appear in exactly the same way. It’s obvious why it’s done this way, in a sense, but it still feels a bit murky to have one not mirror the other.
“The Illusionist” is suspenseful, but strangely so. As the events of the story unfold, the audience is given many reasons to wonder, but the hint of something larger at work is fainter than it needed to be to really grab hold of your attention. Despite this, the film’s score, with its sweeping and chromatic strings, does accentuate the mysterious nature of the plot. The turn-of-the-century European wardrobe, the presentation of Eisenheim’s most impressive and even impractical illusions, the way the camera spins about when one of the plot’s key twisting moments is revealed; all these elements combine to make “The Illusionist” an enjoyable movie-going experience.
On the acting front Sewell was particular good in the outbursts that result from a lost temper. And when he’s calm and collected, Sewell accurately portrays the aristocrat pompous and arrogant nature. Paul Giamatti, in addition to his role as chief inspector, serves as a narrator of sorts, speaking in an unfamiliar voice which is a sort of a microcosm for how profound his acting ability is. Giamatti is the storyteller here, but it’s his gruff, stern and sometimes sarcastic interactions with the Crown Prince and Eisenheim that really allow him to shine. Biel’s role was smaller than expected, but the former 7th Heaven star pulls it off without a hitch.
As for Norton, he is his usual convincing self as Eisenheim. Wrapping himself up deeply inside the role as we’ve seen him do so many times in the past (“Fight Club”, “Primal Fear”, “American History X”), his performance serves to pull the wool over the eyes of his audience, ultimately becoming the character wholly and not just appearing onscreen as Ed Norton playing a magician.
The young Sophie and Edward are also well cast, with each resembling their older counterparts in both manner and physical appearance.
With strong acting and an intriguing story, “The Illusionist” does exactly as any good magician would do by not revealing its tricks before the time is precisely right. For this reason, the film probably deserves a second look so you have an opportunity to discover the intricacies of its illusions with knowledge of the truth already in your head.
