Eye Candy #457 - "The Illusionist"

The Illusionist: The first of two magician-centered pictures that came out in 2006 (the other being “The Prestige”), this movie relies on a similar device (i.e. the reveal in the last five minutes of the film that explains it all), but this film feels more like “The Usual Suspects” than “The Prestige”.  Edward Norton is Eisenheim, an illusionist in Austria at the beginning of the 20th century. Originall a commoner, he uses his performance ability to gain the attention of the crown prince of Austria, Leopold (played by Rufus Sewell). Leopold is engaged to marry Sophie (Jessica Biel, cast very much against type for her), the childhood sweetheart of Eisenheim. Leopold, being a fan of illusionists and magic, employs Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) as his eyes and ears to spy on Eisenheim and learn the secret of his tricks. Uhl himself is something of a magic aficionado.   Eisenheim vows to free Sophie from Leopold, who is notorious as a wife-beater and general lout. Obviously this draws him into conflict with Leopold, during which course Sophie apparently dies. Eisenheim abruptly changes his act, “summoning” spirits on stage to talk about the afterlife, including Sophie, discrediting the royal house, until Eisenheim himself abruptly disappears, leaving Uhl with no successful conclusion to his case. But that isn’t where the film ends, as we are treated to a Keyser Soze-like wrap up where everything we have seen is dissected and put in proper context to explain what really happened to Eisenheim and Sophie.  This movie is definitely watchable. To me, it lacked some of the *oomph* of “The Prestige”, but this film was shooting to be more of a romance than the character study we got with “The Prestige”. I think the actors did well in their roles, particularly Biel who looked like she might be pigeonholed in action/horror movies for the rest of her career.  The director is Neil Burger, someone I’m not altogether familiar with. But seeing as “The Illusionist” is only his second film this is hardly surprising (his first film, “Interview with an Assassin” is now in my Netflix queue).   But all in all, a thoroughly watchable movie.  Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”