The Illusionist

reviewed by dave heaton

An illusionist on stage makes an orange tree grow out of nothing, rising to fruition, in front of a rapt audience. The crowd is abuzz afterwards; did they see what they saw? The chief police inspector, in attendance for the show, comes backstage and begs for an explanation, with the eagerness of a child seeing a magic trick for the first time, but also with an authority figure's skepticism.

That mix of severity and barely-clouded enthusiasm is key to the careful way Paul Giamatti plays the police inspector character, Uhl, in Neil Burger's film The Illusionist, while Edward Norton plays the illusionist, Eisenheim, with a purposeful air of mystery, fitting for a character who's reputed to have wandered the world at a young age, picking up the secrets of magic. All of that is part of the aura surrounding the illusionist, adding to the "who is he"/"how does he do those things" line of questioning, among the citizens of the city where he lives, Vienna, as well as among us the filmgoers (a sort of temporary community).

That magic show puzzle ultimately is not the central fixture of the film's storyline, but it is central to the film itself. Told from Chief Inspector Uhl's point of view, the film incorporates his curiosity about what's real and what isn't into its fabric. We observe the ways that he's trying to wrap his head around the facts, in the same way that someone tries to wrap their head around a magic trick.

The story itself concerns larger matters: mainly forbidden love across class lines (between Eisenheim and childhood friend Sophie, played with elegance and a youthful spirit by Jessica Biel) and political power struggles, as Sophie's intended husband, Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell, wearing a ridiculous fake moustache but convincingly projecting extreme self-interest), maneuvers to wrest power from his father.

The Illusionist seems, from its turn-of-the-century setting in Vienna, likely to fit into that stodgy category of "period piece", but it's much breezier and more alert than that implies. It moves along quickly, keeping us enthralled. And it gains that attention-getting power not just through starcrossed lovers theme (always a winning heartstrings-puller), or through the capable actors portraying all of the characters involved, but from retaining a general mood of mystery – of shadows and fog – throughout the film, making us part of Uhl's investigation into the facts. He tackles the case at hand with the same inquisitiveness that he considers the illusion of the orange tree. We share his fascination, as we watch tales and illusions unfold within the context of cinema, itself a grand illusion, a trick of the light.