REVIEWED - THE ILLUSIONIST: A CURSORY glance at a plot synopsis of The Illusionist could suggest that Christopher Nolan's recent The Prestige has rendered Neil Burger's leather-soled, cobble-stoned period piece redundant. This is not the case. Both films do deal with conjurors making their way in imperial cities at the turn of the 19th century. But The Illusionist - until its last five minutes at least - is a less twisty, more traditional piece of work.
This is not meant as criticism. Based on a short story by Steven Millhauser, this modestly gripping film has the breathless pace of a Victorian melodrama and the uniformed splendour of an Alexander Korda epic. It is little more than a romp, but it is an entertaining one.
Set in Vienna at the height of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's pomp, the film finds suave Eisenheim, a talented stage magician, making an enemy of the ill-tempered crown prince. While still a boy, the future conjurer became close to the daughter of a local aristocrat. She has subsequently grown into the Princess Sophie von Teschenm (elegant, despite being saddled with Jessica Biel's linebacker shoulders) and has become engaged to the evil heir to the throne.
When the two old pals begin exchanging something damper than glances, an ambitious, conflicted policeman - Paul Giamatti's performance calls to mind Claude Rains in Casablanca - is minded to prise them apart.
Different classes of enchantment, real and feigned, are everywhere about in The Illusionist. Though the prospect of a genuinely supernatural element to Eisnheim's act is occasionally suggested,
Edward Norton brings a focused studiousness to the character that dispels such frivolous musings. Meanwhile, the streets of Vienna are rendered pointedly unreal by the use of more robust Prague locations and the imposition of archaic cinematic techniques such as keyhole closes.
The cumulative effect is to produce a classy, frivolous entertainment that, appropriately enough for the material, vanishes into the ether as soon as you think about it.
