Romeo and Juliet disguised as Eisenheim The Illusionist and the Duchess

Rating: 7/10 (22 January 2006)

Paul Giamatti does his best to make his famous self disappear into his role. Prague subs nicely for 1900 Vienna (if you know Prague you'll immediately recognize it). Beautiful scenery, lovely cinematography, appropriate costumes. Makeup good (except for the horrible fake moustache on the Crown Prince). I adore Edward Norton, which is why I was astonished that this superb thesp fails to nail the appropriate accent. Wish he could have picked one and stuck with it throughout. However, he looks fantastic in the period clothes, and is a convincing romantic lead and illusionist. Director says Ed really learned all the close-up magic tricks he performs in the film. Any theatergoer will quickly size up the plot and be unsurprised by it, but that's not a big problem. Just because you know a Shakespeare play doesn't mean you won't enjoy a good performance of it.