Now you see her ...

Rating: 6/10 (5 September 2006)

Writer-director Neil Burger's adaptation of a Steven Milhauser short story, "The Illusionist" transports us to late nineteenth century Vienna, Freud, feudal lords and ladies and phantasms, the spiritualists' promise of a personally intimate hereafter.
The setting is a flash-forward of fifteen years from the film's beginning in which we meet two teens, a young cabinet maker's son, set on his life's path after a chance meeting with an itinerant magician, and young Sophie, born to a much higher station. He presents Sophie with a hand-carved wooden locket containing a secret compartment into which he has put his photograph. Viennese society abhors the vacuum between their states; and so they are forcibly separated. We soon feel as if we're caught up in a fairy tale, made a bit uneasy by the proposition that these wizards and villains are real.
Having adopted the stage name of Manheim the Illusionist, the young man, now an adult, Edward Norton, is fast becoming the darling of Viennese society; and at one performance, he asks for a volunteer, in response to which Crown Prince Leopold, Rufus Sewell, offers his beautiful companion, Jessica Biel, who happens to be Sophie.
Leopold attends such entertainments as these not so much to be amused as to display how clever he himself is at unmasking the performers' gimmicks. He does not suffer frustration easily; and so vents his on Chief Police Inspector Uhl, Paul Giamatti, himself an amateur magician, always looking to learn more. Giamatti, son of a butcher, faces the same societal barriers and ceilings that the two youngsters encountered fifteen years earlier. The detective's career and political future are firmly tied to the level of approbation he receives from the nasty, vindictive Crown Prince. After a particularly embarrassing challenge,thwarted, Leopold insists that the Illusionist's stardom in Vienna must end. The volatile Leopold also announces his intention to marry Sophie. One is left to imagine his reaction at Sophie's rejection.
After a time, Mannheim buys an old abandoned theater and makes a comeback, presenting a new type of illusion. No more sprouting orange plants or handky-bearing butterflies, Mannheim now conjures spirit emanations from the other side, astonishing and giving renewed hope to audiences in search of their own immortality. Can such trickery bring down a monarchy or threaten the succession?
Edward Norton is both steely and vulnerable as the title character. Giamatti portrays Uhl, at once pressured, avidly inquisitive, deeply knowing and positively manic for things well done. Jessica Biel brings a vulnerable yet fiery Sophie into the plot. Rufus Sewell is both seething, condescending elitist and emotionally tortured perfectionist with no tolerance for disappointment, especially in himself. We get the feeling that the prospect of the throne, for all his display, weighs heavily on his shoulders.
The absolute stars of the film are cinematographer Dick Pope and the magnificent settings provided by Petra Habova and Ondrej Nekrasil. If one listens carefully to the Philip Glass score, there are recurrent echoes of Glass' 1983 themes of "Koyaaniqatsi."
One is reminded of the title. In this context lies the single flaw in the production. Yes, while photo imagery was a practiced art by the turn of the century, as were the wonders of smoke and mirrors, there does come a point where the envelope is pushed just too far; and at this point, the ability of the audience to suspend disbelief is diminished.