Magically romantic

Rating: 9/10 (8 March 2007)

The plot line here is simple enough. An adolescent romance is forcibly interrupted because of class differences between the boy (a commoner) and the girl (a duchess). Years later, they by chance reconnect, and the boy, now a man, is determined to overcome that pesky detail of class difference, and win back the love of his life. Around this simple core is woven a beautiful tapestry of beautiful cinematography, and a well acted tale that reaches into the realm, at times, of the hard-to-believe. The male of the romantic pair is a renowned illusionist/clairvoyant billed as "Eisenheim," who successfully awes late 19th Century Vienna with his masterful illusions. His love interest happens to be a Duchess who is unhappily engaged to the rather self absorbed Crown Prince. How can he free the unhappy Duchess, and reclaim her for his own? This is where his skill in illusion really pays off, and for us, challenges our sense of the believable. However, I found that I really wasn't too concerned about how incredibly the plot came to resolution (I am deliberately trying to avoid spoilers here); I am a sucker for a good romance, and I felt sympathetic to the impassioned pair, so I went with it...and enjoyed it very much, lack of realism notwithstanding.