The Illusionist
In 1889, a magician named Eduard ‘Eisenheim’ Abramovich sets up in Vienna, where he — the attention of Crown Prince Leopold and his fiance Duchess Sophie.
When Eduard discovers that Sophie is his long lost childhood love, they fall back in love – and plan to escape the cruel natured Prince.
Direction
Written and directed by Neil Burger, who is someone I have not come across before, yet I have a few of his other films in my ‘to watch list’
Cast/Characters
Edward Norton holds his own as the lead character Eduard. I’m growing more to appreciate his ability to really make any role his own. While I think he struggled with the accent at times, I liked how he played off each of the other three main cast.
Jessica Biel is almost unrecognisable at times as Sophie. I found her to be quite pleasant, and she was able to take on the maturity of the role with ease. As she was essentially the only female cast member, her screen time is somewhat reduced due to the narrative arc, but she have a confident performance. Given she was only 23 at the time, this was a big up.
Paul Giamatti plays Chief Inspector Walter Uhl, who is under the employ of the Crown Prince – and assists him in stopping Eisenheim with performing magic. He is a man torn between wanting more power, and wanting to do the right thing. He was sound in his role, and has shown he can do drama well (Sideways)
Rufus Sewell has some great moments, especially as he is the primary antagonist – and also has his own moments with the three other main cast.
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
Famous for being the ‘second’ magician themed film of 2006 – and rival to Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. For me, that is really where the similarities lie. They are polar opposites in narrative, and even in the supernatural. While Nolan’s was more ‘supernatural’ in the end, this has a more natural, and human element to it.
I quite liked the love story between Eduard and Sophie, as it begins when they are teens – and has the rich girl falls for the poor boy trope. The backstory is quite engaging, and is not heavy handed with how long it is depicted on screen. Future star Aaron Taylor Johnson plays the young version of Eduard.
The love triangle between Eduard, Sophie and the Crown Prince has an abrupt mid movie moment that I was quite shocked by. This is of course ‘addressed’ in the final few moments of the film along with a ‘Usual Suspects’ type discovery by Giamatti’s Uhl.
The 1880s Vienna setting seems quite sound, however sometimes I found some of the actors accents to falter a little.
Overall
Despite being ‘the other magician’ film of 2006 – I honestly did not think of ‘the other one’ at all during my watching – as it holds its own with the cast/performances and narrative.
If you are a fan of Norton, which I am beginning to be more and more of, then give this one a watch.
4/5