Sepia-toned period thriller

Rating: 8/10 (25 September 2006)

I enjoyed this beyond-magic thriller a lot, even though the ending was pretty easily determined ahead of time by any Conan Doyle aficionado of Sherlock Holmes mysteries due to close similarities to at least two of his stories. But, the film was so well done that it more or less overshadowed that obvious bit of copy-cat that gave the film a Sherlock Holmes mystery look and feel, and especially due to all the horse-and-buggy clop-clopping through the old city streets. I fully expected Sherlock to emerge from a buggy at any time, hot on the trail of the perp.
The sepia-toned filter used in all scenes gave it a perfect touch of faded age, and the Prague locations used provided the necessary quaint but regal 19th Century look of golden years class that few cities today can provide for horse and buggy age films. The film had a look of quality and class throughout and was mostly very accurate in its period details.
Edward Norton was terrific in his usual inscrutable-faced way as the magical illusionist carrying out his own illusion of a "murder" mystery, and Paul Giamatti continued to amaze me with his growing virtuosity in another demanding character piece, this time as a deadly serious but role-conflicted police chief trying to solve the Big mystery, more for his own satisfaction in the end than to bring the perps to eventual justice. The Scarlett Johannson-lipped Jennifer Biel was innocently effective as the main squeeze, but Rufus Sewell was a bit much and over the top in his overtly vicious villain role as the emperor's scheming nut-case son. Amusingly, his obviously fake mustache made me watch it in amazement all the time instead of watching him as he progressively chewed the scenery throughout his crazed evolution from a quietly jealous and pompous royal ass to a violently drunken and murderous maniac. Who else noticed his really bad fake mustache and why didn't the director catch it?
Most of the reviews here are very enthusiastic and are mostly well deserved as it was a fine film, but if you know Sherlock Holmes' stories well you will have the ending figured out far before it actually ends and that will away take a bit of your overall enjoyment.