THE ILLUSIONIST Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
The Yari Group
Grade: A
Directed by: Neil Burger
Written By: Neil Burger, from Steven Millhauser's short story
"Eisenheim the Illusionist"
Cast: Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel, Rufus Sewell,
Aaron Johnson
Screened at: Broadway, NYC, 8/2/06
Opens: August 18, 2006 When movies were shown for the first time near the turn of the 20th Century, the alternately thrilled and terrified audience would duck under their seats for cover. Trains rumbled, ready to pounce from the screen, an illusion revived during the 1950's when the failed 3-D technology ignored good storytelling in favor of visual tricks. To some, movies are magic in a broader sense, a chance to get out of your skin and witness both escapist and involving entertainment from the comfort of your seat with the tacit support of others in the crowd. To others, movies have lost their magic, the bulk of films satisfied with providing cheap visuals with vulgarity as the order of the present day. “The Illusionist” raises hopes. This movie is magical not only in the broad sense of an artistic masterwork that transcends its period design and subject. It also possesses the theme of necromancy that has its audience on the screen watching a conjurer with his bag of tricks. Neil Burger’s sorcery affects us in the audience as well. This is film-making at its best, commenting upon issues of class and fictionalized history, teasing us to figure out whether the showman on stage is simply an excellent prestidigitator or a human being possessing supernatural powers. Burger, whose 2002 film “Interview With the Assassin” is a gimmicky yet effective docudrama centering on an interview with a man who claims to have been the second gunman who killed JFK, may seem at first to be similarly manipulative. As one gets into the characters, particularly the verbal duels between a chief police inspector and a conjurer who slowly learn to respect each other, one perceives that Burger gets everything right, from Ondrej Nekvasil’s period design to Dick Pope’s autochrome photography; from Ngila Dickson’s gorgeous costumes to mesmerizing music provided by the great Philip Glass. All takes place in the beautiful city of Prague and nearby environs. The adaptation of Steven Millhauser’s short story is situated in the cultural capital of Europe, the Vienna of 1900, but the characters, including Crown Prince Leopold (standing in for Archduke Ferdinand?), are fictitious. Politically Austria-Hungary is ruled by an emperor, the crown prince the heir to the throne, but because of the animosity generated between Leopold (Rufus Sewell) and a stage magician, Eisenheim (Edward Norton), some believe that Eisenheim will use his sorcery to overthrow the monarchy. The source of the friction is a romantic triangle. In a flashback, we watch the youthful Eisenheim (Aaron Johnson) pledging eternal friendship with Sophie (Jessica Biel), but as their lives grow apart, Sophie hooks up with the Crown Prince as his fiancé while Eisenheim goes on to become the enormously popular magician able to conjure up the dead as well as grow an orange tree from a single seed in one minute. As Eisenheim takes the opportunity publicly to insult the crown prince (“Perhaps I’ll make you disappear”), the latter is determined to shut the show down and presses his chief police inspector, Uhl (Paul Giamatti), into service. While Uhl is ever-solicitious toward his boss, who has implied that Uhl will be made mayor of Vienna, he is drawn to Eisenheim as he and the magician are in the same social class. Increasingly fed up with his own corruption, Uhl may work together with Eisenheim for a common cause, given that they are becoming aware that the heir to the throne may have been involved in a dastardly crime. The tricks performed on the stage, which include making a handkerchief disappear from a small box, then having two butterflies fly it into the audience; bringing the dead to hazy, silent life to the squeals of the men and women in attendance; and “killing” a volunteer only to make her reappear several feet away–could not actually be performed on a live stage. That’s what you’ve got to love about cinema. Edward Norton, made up with some extra hair and a black goatee neatly affixed to his chin, is superb in the role, starting out healthy and robust and gradually sinking into a pale shadow of his former self as he watches the love of his life get caught up in aristocratic circles. Paul Giamatti, who has become ubiquitous of late, is a commanding presence as a corrupt cop, affecting a reasonable Germanic accent for his first foreign role, while Jessica Biel, in a less-than-challenging role, is lovely to look at, resplendent in the heavy costume of the times. This is a rich production in every way; exquisitely photographed in Europe’s prettiest city with stylistic autochrome lensing. If you think you are incapable of being hypnotized, give this pic a try. You won’t be asked to let your eyelids become heavier, but you just may fall under the spell of a magical piece of work. Rated PG-13. 110 minutes 2006 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com Member: NY Film Critics Online | 
