THE ILLUSIONIST

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Smoke And Mirrors

Ed Norton And Jessica Biel Love Mysteriously

Filmmaker-to-watch Neil Burger (his first film "Interview With The Assassin" was a gem of independent cinema) tells an enchanting story about Eisenheim, a turn of the century magician (methodically played by Ed Norton). The prestidigitator reconnects with his childhood sweetheart, Duchess Sophie von Teschen (Jessica Biel).

Sophie agrees to Eisenheim’s romantic plan to escape together from the clutches of the corrupt Viennese Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell), to whom Sophie is about to become engaged.

Tragedy prompts Eisenheim to abandon his signature illusionist act in favor of conjuring the “ghosts” of real people in order to publicly trap Prince Leopold regarding a local murder the Prince committed. Melodramatic passion and a snappy mystery complement this well written movie based on a short story by Pulitzer Prize winning writer Steven Millhauser.

Amid beautifully composed period trappings Eisenheim sits upon a café chair on an empty stage in a packed Central European theater (although set in Vienna, the film was shot in Prague). Eisenheim’s patient demeanor and carefully trimmed goatee belie his youthful physicality. He is not merely a skilled sleight-of-hand magician, but also a socially aware illusionist effortlessly manipulating his audience. He likes to extemporize on the revelations of physical and metaphoric significance that he invokes.

The conjurer plants a seed into a flowerpot. An orange plant full of fresh fruit abruptly blossoms; he tosses one of the ripe fruits out to an excited patron in the astonished crowd. Magical, indeed.

Historian of magic and practicing-magician Ricky Jay served as technical consultant to the production, ensuring that the illusions accurately represent the story’s turn of the century timeframe. The effect is beguiling as Eisenheim sets free a pair of butterflies carrying a borrowed handkerchief to its proper owner in the crowd of spectators.

There are no gratuitous sequences of computer generated imagery to distract from the story. Each illusion serves to reflect an aspect of the tale’s progression. The director enables his audience to discern and examine hidden qualities of Eisenheim’s intelligence through plot challenges that the young magician molds to serve his needs.

Flashbacks reveal Eisenheim as a teenage magician and cabinetmaker’s son when his youthful relationship with the equally adolescent Duchess Sophie was crushed by her bigoted and wealthy parents disapproving of Eisenheim’s impoverished status.

Now, 15 years later, Eisenheim notices Sophie, still wearing a locket that he crafted for her all those years before when he randomly calls her onstage to participate in one of his tricks. The two lovers meet during the following afternoons in clandestine carriage rides spied upon by the geeky-but-effective Inspector Uhl in the service of Prince Leopold.

The dramatic elements of the romantic story coalesce when Prince Leopold commands Eisenheim to perform in the royal palace. Undaunted by the small parlor room constraints of his "stage," Eisenheim takes the bait when the prince uses an object found in the room to entertain the elite assembly.

Eisenheim requests the prince’s sword and balances it on its tip on a surface of floor from where it can only be removed, like "Excalibur," by someone pure at heart. Eisenheim lets the spell linger long enough to humiliate the prince before he removes the sword from its mysteriously fixed position.

Initially, it seems that Eisenheim underestimates the prince’s temper. Ed Norton's character retreats from public life to a solitary cabin in the woods where he devises a different kind of hallucination that he believes will deliver justice against the sinister prince.

Paul Giamatti does a deft supporting turn as Chief Inspector Uhl, a local detective with an amateur’s passion for magic tricks. The effortless scenes shared by Giamatti and Norton are layered with intriguing levels of nearly comic inflection. These actors are having fun working together.

"The Illusionist" is first and foremost a love story. There is a formal reverence for the unspoken bond between Eisenheim and Sophie that elegantly expounds on the period aspects of the story in order to create an atmosphere of timeless devotion. It reflects the adage that says, “Love will find a way.” The mystery lies in how.

Rated PG-13. 109 mins.