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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Since 1996 |
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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The Illusionist Stars: Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Rufus Sewell, Jessica Biel, Eddie Marsan, Jake Wood, Tom Fisher, and Karl Johnson Director/Scriptwriter: Neil Burger (adapting from a short story by Steven Millhauser) Music: Philip Glass Yari Film Group Running Time: 110 minutes No rating (but could be PG 13) With enough facial hair to look like a young Freud (plus a cast that also looks like Freud), Edward Norton plays Eisenheim, a magician/illusionist in Vienna about 1900. Rufus Sewell as the crown prince is recognizable only because he sports a goatee, for the rest of the men, the audience will have to study to find the actor. Paul Giamatti has a mobile face, so you can spot him easily. Jessica Biel has the best costumes (outside of the crown prince) so you can find her in a crowd. Director/scriptwriter Neil Burger adapted a story by Steven Millhauser for his screenplay. It is a story of love, love lost, unusual skill, an autocratic society and a crime. What brings the story to life, besides the actors, is the atmosphere of 1900 as presented with horses, carriages, costumes, gaslights and lots of fog. Philip Glass as composer, co-exists nicely with what is happening on the screen, which is probably Prague and not Vienna. As the story unfolds, we see that as a teenager young Eisenheim (actually a stage name) learns the trade of furniture building while having a friendship with a titled girl (Biel) from a neighboring estate. Her family separates them but not before they pledge love. After a chance encounter with a magician, Eisenheim becomes one himself, and the finest in his field. Years pass, and he comes to Vienna. While on stage, Eisenheim brings a girl from the audience to assist in a magic trick, only to discover (gasp), it is Jessica, now grown and engaged to the nasty crown prince (Sewell, twirling moustache and all.) What happens next unfolds at a slow pace as murder is discussed, the inspector (Giamatti) is on the case, the crown prince becomes jealous and the magic tricks become nothing short of fantastic. In fact, it is as though the audience were part of the audience of that time. Card tricks are for children, this is deep stuff. Edward Norton gives a close-to-the-chest performance as Eisenheim. You feel the guy is up to something, but what? He gives nothing away and this adds to his allure to his audience. They begin to think of him as mystical and the script even dabbles in a lecture of the spiritualism of that time when séances were popular. Jessica Biel looks like someone Eisenheim could fall in love with and the script gives her some scenes to show her mettle. Rufus Sewell specializes in the dastardly villain and this crown prince is no exception. No wonder empires fell easily. It is Paul Giamatti who holds the film together. With no one able to give anything away with a facial expression, Giamatti, as the inspector, can do it and show us what he is beginning to figure out. When did this guy ever give an indifferent performance? The Illusionist is a love story that wends its way through time, magic, palaces, stables, misty meadows and theaters. The audience has to follow the breadcrumbs that the writer has laid out and it is worth the trip to see an audience held in sway by butterflies carrying a ladies handkerchief. Copyright 2006 Marie Asner
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