Flash forward several years to a scene with Eisenheim entertaining the audience in Vienna, including the Crown Prince and his fiancé. Eisenheim asks for a volunteer from the audience for one of his tricks. The Crown Prince’s fiancé volunteers – gee, what are the odds Sophie is the fiancé? Excellent in this movie. Unable to control their hormones, the couple begins an affair. Today it’s virtually impossible to be a member of high society and have a discreet relationship. (Just ask Paris Hilton. Okay, don’t.). Back in the nineteenth century it was even harder to be discreet, so it doesn’t take long for Inspector Uhl to confirm Leopold’s suspicions that Sophie is performing more than just tricks with Eisenheim. Having already embarrassed Leopold at a party in front of his royal guests, Eisenheim is hardly the Crown Prince’s favorite entertainer. Now they’re rivals for Sophie’s affection and the Prince doesn’t play well with others. Leopold pushes Uhl to make Eisenheim disappear. As for the Duchess, he decides to handle her affair with Eisenheim in his own way, confronting her in a drunken rage. Realizing he’s backed a madman, Uhl is torn between the power and prestige Leopold can give him, and his admiration for Eisenheim. Masking his actions as upholding the law to the audience and to himself, he shuts Eisenheim down.

Up to this point Eisenheim has been thrilling audiences with parlor tricks. He purchases a theater and begins performing a show that transforms him from a magician to a sorcerer as he starts communicating with the dead. He summons a variety of benign spirits, including a familiar spirit who is indicates it was Leopold who thrust her into the afterlife. Having uncovered evidence that the Crown Prince is a murderer and a traitor, Uhl informs the King of Leopold’s plans to overthrow him, sealing both their fates. With the deed done, Uhl and the audience realize both he and Leopold may have been duped. The clues are revealed to the audience in a series of flashbacks experienced by Uhl. Uhl’s epiphany and the cunning plot twist are rewarding and well worth the wait.

Paul Giamatti gives a superb performance as Inspector Uhl, a proper gentleman in an improper profession compromised by having to hitch his future to an insensitive despot. He successfully conveys the pent up look and mannerisms of a man struggling with his conscience. He wants the money and prestige Prince Leopold can give him, but if he can get them without having to destroy Eisenheim he will. Giamatti holds onto his Viennese accent better than the other actors and has the more difficult task of playing a wishy-washy fop. Rufus Sewell, the autocratic Crown Prince Leopold, is an acting force to be reckoned with. Resembling Russian ruler Czar Nicholas and sporting the same devilish moustache and beard he donned to play Agamemnon in “Helen of Troy,” Sewell is pure menace, as predatory as a shark. When Sewell loses his temper, spittle issuing from his lips like machine gun bullets, his eyes bulging wildly as of someone was stepping on his head, he’s frighteningly believable. So believable in fact that I’m convinced he got into a bit of method acting and actually slapped Biel with bad intent. Look closely and you’ll see the imprint of Sewell’s hand on fair Jessica’s face.

Kudos to Jessica Biel as well, who proves she’s much more than just a pretty TV actress (and she can take a hefty slap from Sewell without blowing the scene). She captures her characters intelligence, grace, and inner strength without being a damsel in distress or a screw. In short, she’s human. With his weary hound dog expression and slumped posture, Edward Norton is miscast as Eisenheim, a role that needed a dark brooding actor like…Rufus Sewell. Norton lacks the mystique associated with being a world class illusionist, and gives a one-note performance, silent, sullen, and withdrawn, when even a few words might help progress the story. When Eisenheim begins conjuring up the dead, the only transformation Norton goes through is slumping his shoulders and letting his heavy-lidded eyes droop to the point where he looks like he’s sleepwalking. His accent is all over the place, sounding like Jerry Seinfeld one moment and Boris Badinoff the next.

The film’s special effects are dazzling, particularly when the theater audience starts seeing dead people. When Eisenheim first makes contact with the spirit world, the blurry torso of a man appears. Several members of the audience, more curious than frightened, begin to ask the spirit questions. “How do you come to be here tonight?” one patron inquires. The spirit replies sadly, “I don’t know.” The spirit’s appearance convinces the audience that Eisenheim’s powers are genuine, not an illusion, and serve to elevate him to a level of popularity that exceeds Leopold’s An equally captivating scene is when a young boy, one of Eisenheim’s “illusions” leaves the theater, to walk the streets among the living. Returning “home,” to the theatre, the boy enters like a paying customer, wide-eyed and innocent, until a woman reaches out to touch him – and her hands go through him. It’s a truly stunning affect that’s all the more surprising because of the boy seems unaware he’s dead.

Extra tricks…

The extra’s for “The Illusionist” are sleight of hand in terms of time, but worth looking into. Rufus Sewell and Jessica Biel share their thoughts on the script and their characters in “The Making of…” A bare-faced Sewell, looking like a young Ian McShane, comes at his character from an intellectual viewpoint: “The more the country believes in him (Eisenheim), the less they believe in me.” The bubbly Biel, happy to be involved in a meaningful project (she was a last-minute replacement for another actress) comes across as a delightful, talented trooper and an underestimated talent.

If you like creative plot twists, strong supporting characters and sleight of hand illusions, then let “The Illusionist” cast its spell over you.

Posted February 6, 2007 Permalink