Norton in his best

Rating: Null/10 (21 December 2006)

Edward Norton sometimes makes mistakes (such as in Red Dragon). But, when he does choose right, does it with intelligence and criterion unmatched by the actors of his generation. In The Illusionist, he plays the magician Eisenheim, that haunts the Viena of 1900 with his poetical and mysterious tricks - which awakes not only the diffidence of the prince heir (Rufus Sewell) but also the passion of his probable promised (Jessica Biel) with whom Eisenheim had a romantic past. Norton opposes his rational performance to the more expansive style of Paul Giammati, as the police officer whose curiosity is like an itch. The result is a movie extremely well resolved, with a preoccupation that, maybe because of bad luck, has been off the current fashion these days: to tell a story right.