What I Rented - The Illusionist

Without revealing too much, I will probably get into plot details in this review that could ruin your enjoyment of The Illusionist so read at your own caution.

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Once a magician explains his illusion the magic is gone and it becomes a simple parlour trick. If The Illusionist had followed this guideline it might have lived up to its title, but alas it devolves into a moderately entertaining movie devoid of any real screen magic.

Eisenheim (Edward Norton) is a first rate magician whose current show appears to be pushing the bounds of good taste. Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) is outraged by the spiritual content of his show and has Inspector Uhl (Paul Giammati) arrest him. What follows is the complex story of Eisenheim’s career, love life, and feud with the Crown Prince himself.

It’s a great set up, but once again, we have a movie where the script revolves around tricking the audience ; nothing more. For me a plot twist is only rewarding when it adds to the emotional journeys of the characters. When it’s designed solely to fool the audience or the audience surrogate, which in this case would be Inspector Uhl, then it feels like sleight of hand.

The first half of the story is the best. Eisenheim comes to town, dazzles audiences with his amazing illusions, and then meets his old childhood sweetheart who is engaged to be married. There’s real warmth in the romantic subplot, and the film focuses primarily on Eisenheim’s troubled love life.

Then the plot mechanics start to grind, and the film drastically switches gear.

Suddenly, due to some startling complications, Eisenheim is a supporting character in the film and is seen only through Inspector Uhl’s eyes. It’s a jarring change, and since I was no longer allowed to get into Eisenheim’s head, my first question was, “What is he hiding and why can’t the audience know about it?”

The second half of the film ends up becoming a puzzle, which is fun to try and solve for a while, but loses all of the emotional electricity from the first half. Instead of engaging with the characters on any guttural level I was trying to fit the pieces together.

When everything is finally revealed, the magic trick is pretty underwhelming.

That’s not to say that The Illusionist is a total loss. It’s beautifully shot, has a wonderful sense of atmosphere aided by a neat Philip Glass score, and that first hour is phenomenal. It’s just too bad that it feels the need to focus on plot mechanics rather than character. By focusing so much on the trick itself, it forgets to spend any real time with the true star, the magician.

Star Rating - **1/2 out of 4