Flawed Illusionist a Beautiful Trick

Vienna. 1900. A young, absolutely brilliant stage magician named Eisenheim (Edward Norton) has returned home from traveling abroad for the past decade captures the city’s attention with his astonishing illusions. It is also at this time that he is reunited with his former childhood sweetheart Sophie (Jessica Biel), a young noblewoman of now on the arm of the shrewd, power-hungry Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell).

The Crown Prince senses Eisenheim could be trouble, employing the probing Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) to research where this magician comes from and the secrets behind his greatest tricks. At first the police inspector and the illusionist are amused by one another, the cop’s fascination with the latter’s work both charming and flattering to the magician all at the same time.

This all changes, however, when Sophie is found mysteriously murdered and Leopold orders Eisenheim’s stage show shut down. Devastated, the illusionist summons all his otherworldly powers to discover the identity of the killer. Uhl understands his new friend’s desires for vengeance, even agrees his venom is far from misplaced, but still worries that they could bring down the monarchy if they are allowed to continue unfettered. With his own career on the line, the inspector and the magician battle wits and wills, the sinister Prince Leopold watching each of their mysterious moves every step along the way.

The reality between reality and illusion is shattered in writer-director Neil Burger’s “The Illusionist,” an intriguing visual puzzle back based on the acclaimed short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steven Willhauser. It is a dreamy, rather esoteric melodrama that plays like a fevered nightmare moving along the wispy pillows of slowly enveloping fog. Defying easy explanations or descriptions, each frame of this thriller is intriguing clue towards deciphering a cryptic central mystery, the pieces bringing it together a Byzantine network only the most observant able to discover.

The thing is, as beautifully realized as much of this is, for almost too many parts “The Illusionist” is a strangely distant, cold feature hard to warm up to. While it gets better the more you think about it, the thriller elements of all this revolving around three main characters even the most forgiving viewer will have trouble caring about. As for Biel’s tragically delicate Sophie, she’s around so little it’s a bit hard to understand how her horrific loss causes such consternation between the men most interested in her life.

And yet, for all my complaining I could not stop watching this movie. The spell Burger creates is mesmerizing, the line between fantasy and fact so intriguingly blurry I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next. Working with cinematographer Dick Pope (“Vera Drake”) the duo join forces to craft a visual poem so astonishing it absolutely blew the hair off my eyelids. With composer Philip Glass’ (“The Hours”) rhythmically hypnotic score added to the mix, “The Illusionist” is a strangely beguiling mystery impossible for a person to take their eyes off of.

Cast way against type, Giamatti is spectacular. He makes Uhl’s duality absolutely believable, the goodness of his soul battling viciously for control of his heart with the driving pangs of a blind ambition which have lifted him out of the doldrums of his life’s original station yet have also made him assistant to a monster. The fragile friendship he shares with Eisenheim awakens the dormant shards of the inspector’s conscience, their battle of wills enough to make him remember justice is a thing actually worth fighting, and maybe dying, for. Giamatti nails this internal conflict spectacularly, the actor digging his heels into the role so completely his portrayal feels as lived in and genuine as wearing a favorite shirt to bed.

The rest of the cast is solid if a bit uninspiring. Norton is an intriguing enigma as Eisenheim, yet Burger only allows the audience precious little insight into either the man or his motives making it difficult to ever care for him when things start closing in on their darkest hour. Sewell does what he can to make Leopold more than a stock, power-mad villain, while Biel is much better here than you’d have ever expected based upon her work in things like “Stealth” or “Seventh Heaven.” The problem is neither has near enough screen time to make little more than a superficial impression, their characters e as one dimensional and hollow at the end as they were at the start.

But even with these strikes against it I cannot dismiss what the director has tried to accomplish. In many ways, Berger has attempted to do for period mysteries what Bryan Singer did for modern day criminal noir with “The Usual Suspects.” While his characters could use a little bit more work, his handling of the picture’s central themes and ambiguities border on the masterful. It’s all hypnotically mesmerizing, and even at nearly two hours in length the picture feels as if it is over and done with in little less than a heartbeat.

There is no hiding the fact that much of this left me cold. I wanted more from the characters, additional insight into who they were and the motivations making them tick. But character is only one piece of this film’s puzzle, the visual extravaganza holding it together one of a kind. It’s a trick, nothing more, but even a trick can be entertaining, and that’s one thing, even with all its faults, “The Illusionist” certainly is.