Review: The Illusionist (2006)

THE ILLUSIONIST
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: A mystical and mysterious stage magician,
Eisenheim, becomes the rage of Vienna while working
out his own personal love triangle. His childhood
sweetheart is now engaged to the Crown Prince. The
Prince has the power of his station, and Eisenheim
seems to have his own mystical powers. This is a
captivating and atmospheric tale that will keep the
viewer wondering what is real, what illusion.
Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10

As the film opens you are on a stage in the city of Vienna in
pre-World-War-I Austria. A magician on that stage sits in a
concentration that could burn holes in paper. He stares in a
silence that the uneasily audience shares. The entire room is in
profound concentration. Then at the magician's side he is
seemingly joined by the translucent spirit of a woman. As the
diaphanous apparition floats at his arm the Chief Inspector of
Police recognizes the woman, arises from the audience, and orders
that the performance be halted immediately and that the magician
be arrested. The magician (played by Edward Norton) is the
mysterious Eisenheim, whose powers have astounded all of Vienna.
Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti), the catspaw of the Crown
Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell), cannot allow anything to happen on
this stage that might damage the interests of Prince Leopold.
And he has the feeling that the illusionist is dealing in powers
that will be dangerous to the Prince and perhaps even to
Eisenheim himself. The enigmas of Eisenheim and his tricks have
become an obsession with Uhl. This is the spellbinding opening
of THE ILLUSIONIST, written and directed by Neil Burger, based on
a story by Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Millhauser.

From the theater Uhl goes to see Prince Leopold and tells him,
and you, of the arrest and the history of Eisenheim. Eisenheim
who was born Abramowitz loved a girl above his station. He
impressed her with tricks he had learned from a traveling
magician. But their romance was not to be because he was a poor
boy of low birth. His girlfriend became the Duchess Sophie Von
Teschen (Jessica Biel) and now both he and the Crown Prince want
the same woman. But she is engaged to the Prince and Chief
Inspector Uhl, though fascinated with Eisenheim, will protect the
Prince.

Millhauser's story is at heart a simple one. One woman is torn
between two men: one whose powers are all too well known and one
whose powers are unknown and uncanny. The recreation of the
Vienna of a century ago is beautiful, though nearly sabotaged by
Dick Pope's cinematography that over-uses sepia tone photography
and, in the early parts of the film, a blurring of the borders of
the frame, probably from Vaseline smeared on the lens. Later in
the film this unsubtle and manipulative effect is used a lot
less. Another problem is that the visual images on the stage go
far beyond what would have been possible with very early 20th
Century stagecraft. In a film where the main mystery is whether
Eisenheim truly has mastered the arts of true magic or if he is
just a clever stage magician, the visual imagery seems to imply
strongly the magic is real. The illusions are just too
convincing.

I do question whether a magician whose real name is known to be
Abramowitz could have escaped having his background become a
major issue in anti-Jewish Austro-Hungary. The Prince (who is
despicable in many ways) and the Chief Inspector make only a
passing reference to the name. Of course, Edward Norton does not
look Jewish at all. Most critical attention seems to be going to
his acting performance. He is magnetic, but I would contend that
behaving strangely does not require as much acting ability as to
appear to be perfectly normal in a part. It is, I would claim,
harder to play Victor Frankenstein believably than it is to play
his creation. I am more impressed with Paul Giamatti's Chief
Inspector Uhl. This is a very different sort of role for
Giamatti than those he has been getting. He is polished, urbane,
and a member of the establishment. He is a near opposite to his
character in SIDEWAYS and in films like PLANET OF THE APES.

Those who enjoyed this film, and there should be a lot, should
also try to find Menahem Golan's THE MAGICIAN OF LUBLIN (1979),
based on the Isaac Bashevis Singer novel which may well have been
much of the inspiration of this film. The ILLUSIONIST is a
hypnotic film that is an act of stage magic in itself. I rate it
a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.


Mark R. Leeper
mleeper RemoveThis @optonline.net
Copyright 2006 Mark R. Leeper