Quite a Chess Game or How Is It Done?

Rating: 9/10 (7 February 2008)

I'm trying something different with this one: writing my impressions of this film whilst watching it on DVD for the first time. You know, I figured out the "surprise" of the Sixth Sense about 10 minutes into the film. With this one, the plot twist was a complete surprise right up until the end of the film. In the final summation, the magician is the director, and the audience being sold the illusion is the one in the movie theatre.
The writing drips with meaning with every phrase and glance and gesture. But, is information, or disinformation? Edward Norton, like Russel Crowe, knows how to read a script and work with a director. Norton is a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for a good time at the movies, even though, in this one, his acting ain't that great, particularly the accent. But it doesn't matter.
It is Paul Giamatti who actually anchors the film. He represents the audience, and is the most rounded character in this piece. Like so many of us today, he is a moral man, trapped in a corporatist institution that uses his talents and corrupts his soul. But is that soul beyond redemption? Are ours? This film deals with multiple themes: love, morals, objections to rash power, use and abuse of power. This film is a compelling portrayal of totalitarianism and a police state's attempts to control and silence the truth.
I can quibble: Vienna depicted as way too clean for a turn-of-the-20th Century period piece, where the primary means of heating in bad weather was coal, but I imagine that this was deliberate to the production design and the mood that was trying to be created. The DP, production designer and director are able to use a very interesting use of colour, even if it is too clean! Lastly, the music is majestic and evocative of the European music of the past.
A wonderful film.