Movie 9: The Illusionist

The Illusionist (2006) by Neil Burger
starring Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti & Jessica Biel

In a nutshell: You either buy into it or you don't. I did.

Content: This movie presents an interesting case (I will do my best not to spoil secrets). It should work for you if you buy into one of these two possibilities: Eisenheim (Norton) either has some supernatural powers or he can actually pull off some very very believable, complicated, and otherwise unexplained illusions. It really doesn't seem like the movie wants you to believe that anything is supernatural, so if you are a stickler for what illusionists can and cannot do, then you may have a problem with this film. Luckily, for me, my brain was able to just relax and enjoy the movie for what it was.

Quick synopsis: Eisenheim the Illusionist discovers that his long lost love, Sophie is being courted by the generally evil Crown Prince of Vienna in the 19th century (I think).

Even though I enjoyed the film, I did recognize some flaws. I thought that Norton's performance was actually the weakest in the film, as Giamatti was his usual impressive self as Chief Inspector Uhl, Biel was surprisingly good as Eisenheim's long lost love, Sophie, and Rufus Sewell turns in a menacing performance as the slightly crazy, utterly joyless Crown Prince Leopold.

As is sometimes common in period pieces, there is an accent issue. The film takes place in Austria-Hungary, but everyone speaks with British accents, even though the actors are American. So when the actors sometimes struggle with their fake British accent, it is strange that they even bothered, since the film does not take place in or near Britain. Oh well...another thing you just have to accept.

There is an odd use of narration in the film. Uhl's voice pops up only 3 or 4 times and it is unclear whether he is speaking to the audience or to someone else. Eventually it is revealed that he is recounting the events of the first 2/3 of the film to Leopold, which makes the narration all the more strange because it definitely came across as being directed towards the audience, who has no prior knowledge of the characters, whereas the prince certainly does. Again, this is only going to bother you if you let it. Additionally, the movie switched perspectives about halfway through, from Eisenheim's perspective to that of Uhl, making it obvious that Eisemheim is hiding something. However this is also not a huge deal because Eisenheim is a magician, so of course he has something to hide. It is more a question of how much does he have to hide. It is just kind of odd how we switch from knowing what Eisenheim knows, to what Uhl knows.

The film uses a very bland color palette to achieve an aged feel. This works well. We mostly see shades of yellow brown and red, with blues and greens sneaking in only occasionally. The score is creepy and appropriate.

It is inevitable that this movie is compared to The Prestige which came out at nearly the same time. I prefer The Prestige to this film because it doesn't try to cheat by not explaining its tricks, while this film does. It explains clearly how certain tricks were done, while also employing a bit of science fiction which is still explained. The Prestige also has another significant advantage over The Illusionist in atmospheric master Christopher Nolan at the helm, while this is Neil Burger's first significant film.

Overall, it's worth a watch, but it's not the kind of movie most viewers need to watch more than once.

Rolling Rankings:
1. Pulp Fiction (#8)

2. Sideways (#1)

3. Napoleon Dynamite (#5)

4. Raising Arizona (#2)

5. Grave of the Fireflies (#4)

6. The Illusionist (#9)

7. Dr. No (#7)

8. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (#3)

9. Heist (#6)