The Illusionist Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)August 14th, 2006
THE ILLUSIONIST
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2006 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
With a superb cast and a warmly-inviting cinematography, writer and director Neil Burger crafts an easily entertaining piece. Set in Vienna in the early 1900s, THE ILLUSIONIST features an engaging battle of wits among its various protagonists. It's also a love story and a bit of a murder mystery. Most of all, it's the tale of a supremely confident and gifted magician, a man known as "Eisenheim the Illusionist," who is meticulously underplayed by Edward Norton.
THE ILLUSIONIST is the second film by Burger. His first, INTERVIEW WITH THE ASSASSIN, was a contemporary mockumentary that interviewed a mysterious guy who claimed that he was the infamous second gunman on the grassy knoll who killed President Kennedy. If you haven't seen the movie -- most people have never even heard of this 2002 picture -- I certainly recommend it. Burger's two films have little in common other than the showcasing of his storytelling skills.
Burger's apparition was at our screening -- Don't ask. I don't want to spoil this little mystery. The apparition explained, after the film was over, that he used a process called "autochrome" to produce the striking cinematography. This was used first by artists, who were themselves magicians as well, to produce early color photography. A wonderfully old-fashioned film, it definitely benefits from its sepia-toned color palette. The corners of the frame are frequently in shadows, again suggesting it was somehow filmed a century ago -- another marvelous illusion.
When the movie opens, Eisenheim is sweating profusely, as he performs to a packed audience. As the flames burn bright from the stage's gaslights, he somehow conjures up a ghostly image. This causes the police, who are there in mass, to storm the stage. Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti from SIDEWAYS), who we will later learn is Eisenheim's nemesis, arrests him for the crime of "disturbing the public order." Since the public is pretty transfixed rather than disturbed by the illusions, it's clear that there is something behind the arrest. The rest of story is told mainly in flashback, as we see the young teenage Eisenheim and his childhood sweetheart Sophie unsuccessfully attempt to run off together.
We then cut to fifteen years later, when a newly trained Eisenheim reappears in Vienna and takes the town by storm with his near supernatural powers of conjuring and illusions. Although he tells people that he is creating mere effects, the people have trouble believing they aren't real.
Eisenheim's world is shattered when Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) brings his soon-to-be wife, a duchess by the name of Sophie (Jessica Biel), to one of Eisenheim's shows. Things get really tricky when the Crown Prince volunteers Sophie for one of Eisenheim's signature tricks, a sort of death and resurrection event before the gasping audience.
Of course, Eisenheim and Sophie fall in love all over again as soon as their adult eyes meet. The rest of the plot has the four leads all trying in various ways to gain the upper hand and get what they want. Chief Inspector Uhl, for example, has been promised high positions in the Crown Prince's government once he ascends to the throne. But, the Crown Prince expects Uhl to do this bidding first, something that Uhl finds both discomforting and dangerous.
Very intriguing and satisfying, the movie has but two minor problems. A few scenes, most notably the love scene between Biel and Norton, are surprisingly flat. But, a little more significantly, the movie feels compelled to spell out the ending in way too much detail, when the look on one key character's face could easily have told us what to think and still leave some delicious ambiguity to the story's resolution. Instead, Burger feels compelled to tie up every loose end possible. Most audiences will probably prefer it the way Burger shot it, but I'm of the less-is-better school when it comes to conclusions.
This much is certain. You are sure to leave very entertained.
THE ILLUSIONIST runs 1:50. It is rated PG-13 for "some sexuality and violence" and would be acceptable for kids around 10 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, August 18, 2006. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas. The movie was shown recently at the Camera Cinema Club (http://www.cameracinemas.com) of Campbell and San Jose.
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