Two lovers hide in a shack in the woods. It’s turn-of-the-20th-century Vienna and the young duchess is not allowed to befriend a common peasant. On the day they plan to run away, the police go looking for them. She asks her lover to make them disappear, but he can’t. They are separated to for fifteen years until he returns to Vienna, no longer a frightened boy, but as Eisenheim, The Illusionist.
Based loosely on a short story by American novelist Steven Millhauser’s “Eisenheim the Illusionist , this award-winning period drama is another milestone in Edward Norton’s career. As the mysterious magician who traveled the world to learn the secrets of his trade, Norton sets the atmosphere of the film.
Eisenheim is a man of few words, a quality that heightens the aura of obscurity in the movie and brings out the many layers of his brilliance as an actor. His signature gaze combining the fury of indignation at an unfair world, the determination of an unyielding lover and a deep tenderness speaks a thousand words.
He also makes every woman wish she was Duchess Sophie von Teschen, played by American actress and former fashion model Jessica Biel.
“The Illusionist seamlessly combines elements that make for both a great tale and edge-of-your-seat entertainment: a love story, a murder mystery and manifestations of the supernatural.
Without trying too hard to give the film an occult philosophical dimension, screenplay writer and Yale graduate Neil Burger triggers a flood of questions about the nature of time, the meaning of life, the meaning of death and the line dividing appearance from reality; all of which permeate the events and come together full circle with the shocking revelation at the end.
In his first appearance on a Vienna stage when he returns from his travels, Eisenheim talks about the impossibility to go back and forth in time, or to let it go faster, setting the scene for his next trick where he grows an orange tree instantly on stage.
As a reviewer writes in a newspaper the day after his premiere, Eisenheim’s magic is not merely the garden-variety type sleight of hand or the usual hocus pocus rabbit-out-of-the-hat trick, it borders on the artistic.
In their first encounter as adults when Sophie – now practically betrothed to the ruthless Crown Prince Leopold – who attends his show, Eisenheim immediately recognizes her as she gets on stage to partake in an “illusion about the nature of death and the eternity of the soul. The scene is a premonition of what will happen later.
Even though the special effects in “The Illusionist were nothing spectacular, they fit flawlessly within the mood of the film, effectively evoking the historical reality of the era as it is entrenched in our imagination. Together with the décor and costumes, the picture is complete.
It will be difficult to say any more about the film without spoiling it for you, but to me it was a combination of Kevin Spacey’s seminal “The Usual Suspects and Mel Gibson’s less inspired but sweet story of boundless devotion “Braveheart . Please don’t gasp, I realize this doesn’t seem possible, but it should at least pique your interest.
And as they say, nothing is what it seems.
