A deft period piece that draws you under it's spell.

Rating: 8/10 (2 September 2006)

It is Vienna, circa late 1800's. A magician, known as Eisenheim is plying his trade to an enraptured audience. He is no ordinary magician, content to pull rabbits out of his hat, he offers illusions that appear real. One night the Crown Prince Leopold decides to attend with an entourage and his soon to be betrothed. When Eisenheim asks for a volunteer, Leopold offers her.
On stage we see that Eisenheim recognizes her as the girl he loved as a teen, and whose family separated them, because he was of the wrong class: Common. She does not recognize him until after the act is over. Leopold, played with great icy arrogance by Rufus Sewell - a younger look alike to Ian McShane - and probably most recognizable to American audiences as the bad Knight of "Knight's tales", invites Eisenheim to his palace for a private performance.
In the mean time, Eisenheim (Norton) meets secretly with his erstwhile love, and the flame is rekindled.
At the Palace Eisenheim finds that Leopold plans to have his "illusions" unmasked, so that he can bask in the public humiliation of a man whose talents he finds threatening, but instead Eisenheim makes the mistake of publicly humiliating Leopold and dooms his career.
Paul Giamatti is the Chief of Police, and in the pocket of Leopold, and is sent to discover Eisenheim as a fraud, and thus ruin him, but before he can do so Eisenheim's humiliation of Leopold does it anyway.
Eisenheim and his love plan to elope but tragedy intervenes and the movie takes on a darker tone. Eisenheim know seems to be on the path of vengeance, and in the process seems to have joined hands with the dead. He conjures up spirits and his fame returns even more strongly.
Leopold presses the police chief to do his bidding, and the movie rises to it's conclusion with a final trick of illusion.... or does it? Norton is wonderful in a tightly controlled role, and uses his mesmerizing gaze to great affect. He seems to fit into this role much better because he underplays it. Giamatti continues to amaze by ditching his trademark grin and smirk for a straight face. Sewell plays the villain to the hilt, and is probably going to be stuck in these kinds of roles unless he avoids the lure of Hollywood.
As a period piece the movie delivers a realistic and beautifully colored frame, that helps to enrapture the audience in the story, and even though the ending can be predicted by those looking for the "sting," I was pleased to be caught unawares.