Magic entertainment

Rating: 8/10 (10 December 2007)

This movie will inevitably be compared with Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige", another story about turn of the century stage magicians which also appeared in 2006. It is however a different kind of movie, quieter, and intense rather than spectacular. The setting is Vienna in the dying days of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Eisenheim (Edward Norton) is a successful stage magician who unfortunately incurs the ire of the arrogant and autocratic Crown Prince Leopold (Rupert Sewell). We see the story through the eyes of Inspector Uhl, (Paul Giamatti) who is sent by Leopold to investigate Eisenheim. In fact, both Leopold and Eisenheim are in love with the same woman, Sophie, Duchess of Somewhere (Jessica Biel). So we get a tussle between power and intellect. No prizes for guessing the winner, but there's plenty of surprises on the way.
We are treated to four very fine performances. Edward Norton as Eisenheim gives very little away and yet we sense his feelings. Paul Giamatti is more assertive than in some of his earlier roles  a bit like Claude Raines as the shady policeman in "Casablanca". He too, acts with his eyes. Rufus Sewell, who has very large eyes, does villains just as well as heroes, and does a very hiss-able one here, though on occasion I was strangely reminded of Jack Lemmon as the comically stark raving mad Prince Hapnik in "The Great Race". I haven't seen Jessica Biel before (a soap princess, it seems), but she has just the right fragile beauty for Sophie.
The re-creation of the period is faultless, with Prague and environs filling in for Vienna. The film-makers were able to use Konopiste castle, the former Czech country home of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which has an unforgettable hallway decorated with the heads of thousands of deer. Yes, you think, this is the home of someone who likes shooting things. The character of Leopold is based on that of Crown Prince Rudolf, heir to the throne, who is supposed to have committed suicide with his mistress at Mayerling in 1889, though it has been suggested he was murdered to forestall an attempt to overthrow his father. Franz Ferdinand was Rudolf's cousin (and subsequent heir to the throne) whose assassination in 1914 tipped Europe into the First World War.
But the film is not historical, neither is it a mystery. You can believe in spirits if you like, or you can accept the rational explanation of the illusionist's "magic". This is a surprisingly entertaining film. What I find very interesting is that the director, Neil Burger, who also wrote the script, has apparently little prior experience in film-making, yet somehow managed to produce a tight, well-made entertainment. In the audio commentary on the DVD I watched he makes it clear his movie-making instincts are right on the button. The film is a credit to the Czech film crew as well. The producers, though, had the last laugh. This film cost $16.5 million to make and grossed over $32 m in the US alone. "The Prestige" grossed $53m in the US but, made in the much more costly US, cost $40m. Good films both, but in their different ways.