Smoke and Mirrors

You will probably guess the twist of The Illusionist part way through. You will feel vaguely disappointed. And then you will find yourself drawn back into the tale though the sheer beauty of the construction and the power of the two central performances.

There are not many films that can overcome such a potentially devastating blow so big pats on the back where they’re due: writer/director Neil Burger, Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti.

Norton plays Eisenheim, turn-of-the-20th-Century Vienna’s answer to David Blaine. He’s a mysterious illusionist with a mysterious past although one key element of that – the woman he loves – is about to reappear. As a child, Eisenheim and Sophie von Teschen planned to elope so that that could be together. When their plans were thwarted, he disappeared and Sophie grew up to be: a) Jessica Biel; and b) betrothed to a man more suitable to her station, Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell).

With the now adult Sophie and Eisenheim thrown back together, Leopold’s trusted Chief Inspector Uhl (Giamatti) is charged to find the truth to Eisenheim’s trickery and thus evolves a fine battle of wits around which Eishenheim is preparing his greatest illusion ever.

This is an enormously enjoyable, high quality piece of work featuring two of Hollywood’s finest actors doing what they do best. Norton makes Eisenheim sympathetic when, let’s face it, he could have come across as eminently punchable as Blaine or Derren Brown. Giamatti also makes Uhl a rounded character, a man of honour who sometimes doesn’t enjoy what he’s been asked to do, but will do it as he can see the bigger picture. Again, he could have come across as unlikeable, a real little jobsworth of a man. But he doesn’t. He’s a human with believable motives and, perhaps, a keener intelligence than he sometimes lets others see.

There’s little else I can say without giving away great rafts of the plot. Suffice to say then that this impressive and beautifully shot melodrama is a compelling experience.