Lacks magic

Rating: Null/10 (25 August 2006)

This is a passable period piece, a film set around the turn of the last century in Vienna. Its about the star crossed romance between a Duchess and a poor boy who makes good on the stage as a magician. Its nicely mounted,well directed by Neil Burger and mildly engaging.
But it could have been a much better film, if it had undergone a serious rewrite, been better cast and had its feel good, montage ending reedited.
The core of the story is the illusionist played blandly by Edward Norton. While glib on stage and good under pressure, he is nonetheless a nondescript magician without any engaging character traits. He is neither a tortured mystic struggling to cope with his powers, nor a skillful conman using his talents to make a killing duping audiences. He's simply a quiet success. Too quiet. He is not a larger than life character and that seriously hurts the entertainment value of the film, for he seems to be a man with no major motivations, no big goals he's trying to achieve. He doesn't even seem all that fascinated with his magic.
Seeing him in blandness and raising him is Jessica Biel as the Duchess. She is beautiful, but about as uninvolved a princess in an ivory tower as you will see in a film. Her big scene in which she breaks up with the abusive Austrain prince she is engaged to is almost unbelievably dull.
The lone exception to the blandness rule that controls this film is Paul Giamatti, who plays a Vienna police detective fascinated with Norton's magic tricks, but forced by politics to play ball with the demented prince.
Giamatti goes in the other direction, mugging for the camera at every opportunity, and actually almost going into a parody mode at the end of the film as he "figures it all out." For a hint about how to play the important third party --especially if he is a detective -- see Edward G. Robinson's performance in "Double Indemnity."
The film is not without merit, and the action moves the picture along with few dead spots. Nonetheless, you can't help feeling that this is a picture about magic that lacks magic, both literally and symbolically.