Reviews

The Illusionist

Hollywood has a new trend genre this year in the “period piece, magician film”. This is the first of two that have made it to a wide release; the second is The Prestige to be released in October. The latter of the two is directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins and Memento). After seeing this particular film I am convinced that Nolan’s is the better of the two. Now, on with the review.

The Illusionist is directed and co-written by newbie Neil Burger and based on a short story by Pulitzer Prize winning author Steven Millhauser. The film stars Edward Norton as Eisenheim a turn of the century magician who returns to Vienna after trek around the world, studying the art of the illusionist. When he returns he is reunited with a childhood love, Sophie (Jessica Beil). The issues they both had in their earlier romance is one of class struggle, for Sophie is a duchess and Eisenheim is the son of a carpenter. Sophie also has a larger issue in that she is betrothed to Crown Prince Leopold, a real bastard of a man played brilliantly by Rufus Sewell. Rounding out the cast is the always-reliable Paul Giamatti as Chief Inspector Uhl, a man with close ties to the crown yet is always conflicted between being a good officer and doing the prince’s dirty work.

Eisenheim and Sophie rekindle their affair very quickly and make an attempt to free her from her royal prison, yet those plans are cut short by Leopold, as he dispatches of her in a brutal manner that he has apparently done before and has his lackeys cover up for him. A distraught Eisenheim is overcome with grief and now a lust for revenge. At the same time Inspector Uhl is looking deeper into the investigation while investigating Eisenheim himself. \
Overall the film is decent, though I found that it was trying to be too many things and sort of loses sight of itself. First it starts off as a study of the magician and argues a point of “Is it real or not?” then goes into a story of forbidden love that turns into a lame murder mystery that the audience knows the perpetrator, yet the rest of the cast doesn’t, then shifts that all around and becomes a revenge-con game. Despite this the performances are great, speaking especially about Norton, who never seems to fail, yet is very engaging in this particular role. Sewell has made a career of playing evil noblemen and does it with much viciousness in this film. Beil is tragic and shows much more potential in this role than in any other in her past. Finally Giamatti ties the rest of the film together as the conflicted inspector who is caught dead center in a class struggle of his own and happens to pull off a slight accent, as does the rest of the cast.

The cinematography, by Dick Pope, is lush and bright and manages to pull off some nice effects to simulate the film style of the time period, with scenes beginning with the slow opening of the circular lens aperture and the opening credits in a sepia tone with a slight jump in the titles.
The score by Phillip Glass is haunting and probably one of his best due to the orchestrated, cinematic overtures as apposed to his standard electronic experimentalism.

Despite the film’s faults with an uncontainable plot, the film is watchable due to its performances and cinematography as well as the effects during an of Eisenheim’s performances. Like I said earlier, though this film might have made it out first, I believe the best is yet to come with The Prestige.
6.5
George

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