Make Us Disappear

Rating: 7/10 (27 August 2006)

Greetings again from the darkness. The trailer and two male leads for this one made it a must see. What we get is an incredibly stylish, cool work of art ... and a decent (not great) film. Director Neil Burger, whom I know nothing about, has obviously studied Hitchcock and some of the great period pieces in Hollywood history. His lighting and shot selection are beautiful.
What is missing here is a captivating, suspenseful story line. Really only two half-developed sub-plots exist. The first one is, will the Police Inspector (played brilliantly by Paul Giamatti) "catch" Eisenheim (a mesmerizing performance by Edward Norton) in the tricks of his illusions? The second, and much less interesting, is the odd love story between the long ago adolescent friends (Norton and Jessica Biel). This second story is borderline preposterous as we are supposed to believe some unbreakable bond occurred between these two at age 14 that even 15 years apart (and maturity and life lessons) could not break.
Missing suspense aside, this is a very entertaining film thanks to the style of the film and the joy of watching two of our best working actors - Norton and Giamatti. We actually sense Norton's pain throughout and Giamatti again wreaks eternal resignation to his plight. Also adding to the fun is popcorn evil bad guy, The Crown Prince, played well enough by Jude Law lookalike Rufus Sewell. Luckily, Biel's contribution is limited to big hair, big lips, a big smile and very few lines of dialogue.
The spiritualism of this era in Venice is touched upon, but actually very little historical significance is given to the Illusionists of the time, who were worshiped by the masses until they were exposed and then deposed.
Definitely worth seeing, but disappointing due to its lack of story breadth and substance.