All done with mirrors

Rating: 7/10 (4 August 2012)

An entertainingly old-fashioned historical mystery thriller (I think that covers it!), spiced up with magic and political intrigue. At heart a love story between a commoner (Edward Norton's Eisenheim character) and a noblewoman (Jessica Biel's Lady Sophie), their youthful affair is sundered by her outraged family. Fate brings them together again as adults at which point she is unwittingly and somewhat unwillingly being used as a political pawn in the machinations of Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) to usurp his father's throne and he has developed a reputation as a master illusionist. Her rekindled love for Eisenheim jeopardises the Prince's plans as well as stirring his jealousy, rendering the men implacable enemies, with the Prince employing his chief of police Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) to discredit Eisenheim and ensure Sophie plays her part as his consort. How Eisenheim strikes back at the Prince with a daring new illusion forms the main suspense as the film reaches its conclusion.
Released at around the same time as Christopher Nolan's similarly themed and for me more confusing and overrated "The Prestige", I preferred the relative simplicity of the narrative here, with the characters' motivations being much easier to discern. Beautifully shot in golden suffused light to enhance the period detail, well acted by all concerned and with Philip Glass' compellinhly hypnotic score in the background, it looks like a well portrayed theatrical production, at times like watching a play within a play.
While the ending isn't hard to work out and the Police Chief's "Eureka!" moment somewhat contrived, still all the loose ends are conveniently explained and tied up by the end, making this a satisfying and easy on the eye entertainment.