An unmistakable masterpiece for all involved. Elegant, technically flawless with brilliant performances, captivating and riveting. If the production design and cinematograph of The Illusionist don't thrill you, the story will. If the story doesn't, then the acting will. View Movie Trailer through IMDb.com
Awash in sepia tones, with deep shadows paralleling the shadowy secrets of illusion and death, director Neil Burger escorts us, in his second film production, through the story of a master illusionist, told with sterling, yet ironic, realism. Directorial choices, such as Sophie's entrance at the theater, add to our understanding of the characters and reinforces the storyline and thematic meaning. The work of editor Naomi Geraghty, performing in synchronicity with Burger, produces an unbroken view of the fabric of these lives unfolding before us. The Illusionist is the finest film since Chariots of Fire. Burger and his creative production crew blend light and shadow, youth and maturity, illusion and fact all together to produce a flawless whole which is the epitome of mystifying, intriguing, captivating entertainment.
In The Illusionist, a fine furniture maker's son falls in love with illusion and a child-duchess falls in love with him. Theirs is a perfect youthful love, except for one thing: He is a peasant and she a duchess. Their young love is not to be and he leaves the village, for nobler reasons than the tantrums of a broken heart, and ultimately dedicates himself to illusion. In his mature years, as a master illusionist, he performs in Vienna and, as fate would have it, he encounters the duchess who is also at the height of her powers and beauty.
Circumstances throw them together more than once and soon, a murder must be accounted for, treason and betrayal must be answered for and The Illusionist is driven to perform the two most astounding feats of his career. The Chief Inspector, an admirer of illusion and genius, has the task of sorting friend from foe, truth from deception and corruption from loyal honesty. The course of his journey takes him by surprise, again and again. But, ultimately, in his hand lies the knowledge of how to bring new life from a seed.
Set in Vienna at the end of the Hapsburg Empire era, the corrupt Crown Prince Leopold (modeled after Crown Prince Rudolf Hapsburg), Emperor-to be, is beguiled by power and by the power of science, knowing and facts. In his corruption, he is about to sabotage the Empire and, with it, the inner truth--which appears illusionary--of his subjects. In the end, he sabotages himself and the test is made between the power of visible empirical truth and the power of illusionary truth.
Edward Norton, who plays The Illusionist, is startlingly perfect in this role, one almost questions that it is a role. Edward Norton (Kingdom of Heaven), playing Eisenheim, is so exquisite, even to the finest point of detail, that viewing The Illusionist is like opening a magical aperture into another time and watching, undetected, the actual workings out of lives in progress. Jessica Biel as Sophie contributes equally to this illusion of watching through a hidden aperture. She is not only beautiful, she is superb in a difficult role. She knows things that we are not meant to know. She must keep these things she knows hidden from us, just as she must keep them hidden from the other people in her life on screen. Jessica Biel (Stealth) does this without one shade of a slip: We believe what she wants us to believe; we never think what she does not want us to think. The rest of the cast, especially Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man) as Chief Inspector Uhl and Rufus Sewell (Tristan & Isolde) as Crown Prince Leopold,as well as the children actors representing Edvard and Sophie in their youthful years, all perform without flaw, contributing the seemingly true life picture we watch through our invisible aperture
The screenplay, also by Neil Burger and based on a short story by former Pulitzer Prize winner, Steven Millhauser, is a testament to logic, precision, elegance and intelligence in suspenseful story telling. The Illusionist presents the idea of how life is driven by opposites: by rationality and by emotion, by reason and by compulsion, by duplicity and by honesty. The Illusionist is a story revelatory of human nature and psychology. Moreover, this revelation is in the best style of language which reveals heart and mind even as it moves story and action along.
Cinematography and lighting (Dick Pope) are derived from and woven as reinforcement into the elements of the screenplay of The Illusionist. For instance, illusion is enhanced by lights and shadows playing in every scene, whether indoors or out. The particular combination of long shots and close-ups adds to the feeling that the story is revealing mysteries and simultaneously protecting mysteries. Set production (Ondrej Nekvasil) for The Illusionist is impeccable, sets lending to the beauty and description of the characters.
The Illusionist is a story of regained love, reclaimed innocence and life, truth behind illusions and illusions behind truth. Neil Burger orchestrates no false note in this cinematic experience in which eyes are a great symbol: Who sees what is an illusion? Who sees the truth? And of what is truth made? Is it of facts and science or of illusion and mystery?
I walked out of the theater in a daze that didn't clear for at least five minutes: The real world looked gray and glaringly unreal, my thoughts still swirling with The Illusionist and his triumph over truth. This movie will win many Academy Awards, including one for best editor--a category in which Moviedom seems to fall flat on its face in most films. On a scale of 1-5, The Illusionist is a 10, all right, I can't go over 5. The Illusionist is the definition of "5."
Extra Historical Note: The Illusionist is derived from a short story which is derived from the history of Austria at the end of the 19th century. An unsolved death (or was it murder?) in the hunting lodge of Crown Prince Rudolf is the model for the short story, Eisenheim (Steven Millhauser) and the film, The Illusionist.