As Neil Burger's ""The Illusionist"" opens, Eisenheim (Edward Norton) has brought magic to Vienna, to the dismay of Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell). Leopold, a skeptic, is threatened by the successful magician. ""You seek to trick, I seek to enlighten,"" he tells him. Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) is hired to keep watch on Eisenheim. His job becomes more serious when Eisenheim meets Sophie (Jessica Biel), his childhood love, after decades of class-dictated separation. She now pursues Leopold and an affair ensues, but Sophie contemplates leaving the Prince for Eisenheim.
But this is not a movie about twists and turns—it is about magic. The best sequences in the film are Eisenheim's magic acts. They serve as historical reproductions of what such performances must have felt like to early audiences, decades away from cynicism. Cinematographer Dick Pope paints the screen in an unobnoxious sepia tone, suggesting a break from reality into an eerie, romanticized world. It takes cinematic grace to be nostalgic without seeming phony, and the audience is not made to feel like museum tourists. Philip Glass' score, stellar as always, completes the mood.
Norton is excellent as Eisenheim. He is at home on the magician's stage and channels Harry Houdini, who is the obvious inspiration for his character. ""The Illusionist"" displays why Norton is one of the best actors working today. Given to louder parts, he is more reserved here, and by losing his previous screen persona, he qualifies the darkness of the film.
Giamatti, as Uhl, is even better. Uhl is the most nuanced figure in ""The Illusionist."" He is forced into indifference but wishes he were a better person. He takes delight in Eisenheim's act while knowing he has a responsibility not to let it continue. It's a marvelous performance.
But the greatest error is Sophie's character. She seems obligatory, designed for cut-away bedroom scenes with Eisenheim and quick soap-opera confrontations with Leopold. What would the secret love interest of a dynamic, mysterious magician be like? Surely not someone as laconic as Sophie, or Jessica Biel for that matter. Sewell's Leopold is hardly more interesting; he spends the movie screaming and looking skeptical.
""The Illusionist"" also falters in its plot. Burger's and Steven Millhauser's screenplay, based on Millhauser's short story ""Eisenheim the Illusionist,"" fails to be compelling by itself. They present the conflict between magic and Enlightenment thought early, in an interesting scene where Leopold participates in Eisenheim's act, but the script does not wholeheartedly pursue this theme. Leopold's character needs extra motivation in hating Eisenheim, when their philosophical differences should have been enough. The plot is forced into absurd situations, culminating in the obligatory ""big twist.""
Thankfully, Norton and Giamatti compensate for the film's errors in logic and execution. ""The Illusionist's"" visceral impact makes it worth seeing.
