Surprising dull affair as it misfires on various levels

Rating: Null/10 (18 July 2007)

As a child, Edward fell in love with a girl who was outside his social class. The girl is taken from him and he is warned of arrest for himself and his wider family. Years pass with Edward travelling the world  the details of this varying depending on which story you listen to. Either way, he eventually remerges under the moniker Eisenheim the Illusionist and is a big draw as his blend of magic and the supernatural leaves audiences gasping. When he comes to Vienna, he finds the girl he loved has become a woman and is now engaged to Crown Prince Leopold.
I was curious to see this having seen The Prestige simply because thematically they seemed similar. However, beyond the idea of using the magic, the period and the uncertainity between real and illusion, the story is quite different as it is much more of a romance-driven tale. Someone on the message board for this film joked that you can tell which of the two films you will prefer if you simply refer to your genitalia and in a way they are quite correct because I do see The Illusionist being of more appeal to women. Maybe I should pull that comment back a bit though, because, regardless of what sex you are, I suspect that you might find this to be as dull as I did.
In theory what we should have here is a smart mystery that is driven forward by a romantic history that we care about. This should lead to a "reveal" that brings everything together in the sort of way that those who have enjoyed The Usual Suspects will appreciate. However stage by stage it all fell down for me. Firstly we are handed a childish "love" that we are asked to care about  understandably I didn't at this point but I looked to it to be made real for me in the adult stage of the characters. Of course it seems that the writers told nobody about this because the relationship is never convincing and as such this emotional hook into the film doesn't catch  it probably didn't help that Norton and Biel go as well together as ice cream and syphilis.
So this left me with the mystery inherent in the plot. Sadly this failed to interest me either. The magic aspect of it took it beyond my interest simply because, by being set in the world where "anything is possible or can be made to appear possible" I knew that the film could really do whatever it wanted to do. This was further reason why the narrative failed to draw me in and, not only that, but I actually found it quite dull as I found myself caring less how the couple made their getaway (I assumed) or what would happen. The final few minutes of the film is evidence of the failure to engage as we are given what was clearly intended to be an ending with the impact of The Usual Suspects  where the entire film is shifted in a "reveal" that only served to make a good film even better. However here nothing is really revealed and it left me wondering what the "solution" that so amuses Uhl actually was. Of course maybe I would have been more taken by the ending if I'd actually been made to care about the narrative (as I had with Suspects) but, as mentioned  I didn't.
It is not that it is a bad film, just more that it was like a dud that never actually fired for me. Having said that though the one area where it did engage me was the cinematography. For a film dealing with what is real and what is not, I thought the decision to use bold colours was a good one as it made everything seem almost overly real and tangible in a way where real "reality" is much more grittier and less impressive than that which is presented as such. Visually the rather stiff cast fit in with this visual creation but otherwise they do mostly come off dull and stiff. Together they are poor but individually neither Norton or Biel offer much. The latter was no surprise to me but seeing Norton failing to emote was a surprise since I do rate him as an actor. He is overly stiff and as a character he offered me nothing to engage with. I almost want to assume that this was a conscious decision because the rest of the cast match this. Giamatti is flat but next to the flop that is Sewell he does appear to be giving the performance of his life.
A dull film then that really failed to engage or interest me. As a romance it fails as the chemistry is totally absent from the lead two while, as a mystery, the magic element actually works against it, meaning the Usual Suspect ending did nothing for me and certainly did not have anything like the impact that it was suppose to do.