Movie Review: The Illusionist
An old world stage illuminated only by lantern light. Armed guards standing post throughout. The audience, a sea of faces with mouths agape, except for one. The skeptic tilts his head away from the stage in a sidelong glance as the magician evokes his deception.
The Illusionist is a gothic romance-mystery set in the surreal world of 19th century Vienna. Based on the short story, Eisenheim, The Illusionist by Pulitzer-Prize winning author, Steven Millhauser, this film is intelligently clever and beautifully stylized on behalf of the story, rather than in spite of it.
The stage magician, Eisenheim (Edward Norton) is under the scrutiny of Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) as a potential threat to the monarchy. The prince orders Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) to arrest him in his own theater during a performance. Interestingly, the Prince’s fiancé, Duchess Sophie von Teschen (Jessica Biel) is a childhood friend of Eisenheim’s. Separated by both time and social standing, they reignite their unrequited love in a strange and dangerous triangle of political upheaval and mystical realism.
Like a well-timed waltz in flouncing skirts, the actors play off of each other in a whirling dervish of monotoned politeness that become their own storytelling trick of double meanings. Eisenheim is a practiced stoic, giving only the details he chooses to in order to make his illusions mystify their audience. A script- and character-driven movie, the magic doesn’t become the focal point, but is the means to a puzzle of an ending.
Writer/director Neil Burger spins this world from a golden yarn. Stylish in its sepia-saturated and haze-of-a-dream quality, the frames resemble moving Daguerreotypes. The antiquated effect lends itself to this realm of turn-of-the-century Vienna, when fascination with mysticism and the supernatural were a favored past time of the rich and noble. The story may not fool you, but like any good illusion, you’ll want to train your gaze on every frame to analyze how the trickster makes it work.
[The Illusionist Official Website]
