The Illusionist

By Julia Wieting

For those of you who were disappointed by last year’s ethereal yet ultimately insubstantial The Brother’s Grimm, look no further than The Illusionist for that tantalizing combination of mysticism and period glamour that would make Tolstoy drool.

Seriously now. The Illusionist is truly a charming movie that happily avoids the pitfalls that most literary adaptations fall into, namely, trying to follow the written word too closely and failing to take advantage of visual storytelling. Based on a short story by Steven Milhauser, Eisenheim the Illusionist, the film tells the tale of a young Austrian man (played by Edward Norton) at the end of the 19th century who, separated from his beloved at an early age, travels the world as a magician. Changing his name to Eisenheim the Illusionist, the man makes his was back to Vienna as a stage performer who gives spectacular shows for the social upper crust. Eisenheim’s tricks verge on the truly magical—or at least, unexplainable—and attract the attention of the Chief Inspector Uhl (played by Paul Giammatti), an amateur magican himself and the Crown Prince of Austria’s right-hand man.

Everything is going well for Eisenheim until the Prince himself (played by Rufus Sewell) attends a performance and, unwittingly, introduces Eisenheim to the very woman that he was in love with as a boy, Sophie (played by Jessica Biel). But, what should be a tearful and painless reunion between her and Eisenheim turns out to be more complicated, for she is a Duchess and the Prince’s likely fiancé. Artistocracy always screws things up. To make matters worse, the Prince is determined to prove that Eisenheim’s ‘magic’ is mere legerdemain, and he invites the illusionist to an evening part at the palace. The evening doesn’t go smoothly for either man, as Eisenheim makes a very pointed jab at the Prince’s ability to rule, which the Prince takes rather badly.

From then on the movie weaves through an elaborate caper of murder and political intrigue, a labyrinth of perception and reality navigated by Uhl as he tries to piece together just exactly who Eisenheim is. Giammatti plays the Chief Inspector as something of a royal stooge, yet a stooge who tempers conviction in his job with an-ultimately-triumphant sense of moral certitude and the humility to realize when he is wrong. Norton, like always, finds the seriousness in a character that might otherwise come across as an empty romantic lead, and gives Eisenheim a sense of purpose that teases out the truth that underlies his artifice. Sewel is sultry and surly, and provides more-than-adequate dramatic tension in his corrupt and dangerous Crown Prince Leopold. And Biel overcomes the tragedy of being too pretty for her own good to provide her own dramatic weight as an assertive and perceptive Sophie.

And, in contrast to a movie like The Brothers Grimm or others that mine the nineteenth century for phantasm and romanticism in the hopes of creating a marketable fairy tale, The Illusionist’s emphasis on the political landscape of the Austro-Hungarian empire’s slow collapse and failed attempts to reassert itself on the world stage makes for an vivid sense of historical commentary. Eisenheim’s illusions mirror the illusions of the Victorian elite who believed that science and social order would march onwards, unceasingly. The result was a world war, the break down of European political and social security, and the loss of millions of lives. Did Burger intend this as a comment on the war in which we are now involved? Speculation, to be sure, but pertinent when taken within the continuum of history.

That is, of course, if you take it that far. Burger’s luch and clever scenes and the flawless acting of Norton, Giammatti, Sewel, and Biel ensure that the film will be entertaining at the very least, and well-informed, intricate storytelling at the very best.

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