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THE
ILLUSIONIST (Aug 2006)
Director: Neil Burger.
Writers: Neil Burger, Steven Millhauser.
Starring: Edward
Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel, Rufus Sewell, Eddie Marsan,
Jake Wood, Tom Fisher, Aaron Johnson, Eleanor Tomlinson, Karl
Johnson.
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The
Cucumberist
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The
Distractionist.
by
Jon Dunmore © 7 Sep 2006.
In
a movie about misdirection, the opulent production design,
set decoration and sumptuous cinematography of THE ILLUSIONIST serves to misdirect the audience into believing that there
is something more profound at stake than the Getting of Panty.
I
can pinpoint exactly where THE ILLUSIONIST loses
its footing: during afterglow, Eisenheim the Illusionist
tells Duchess Sophie, "The only mystery I couldn't
solve was why my heart couldn't let go of you." Quantum
groan.
Up
to that point the movie intimated it was about a master mystic delving into occult knowledge, seeking forbidden illusions
and tempting unholy fates, but with that George-Lucasoid
line, it showed its hand - its objective was simply to reunite
star-crossed lovers. Again: groan; simultaneously, pay less
attention so manhood remains intact.
Originally
a short story by Steven Millhauser (Eisenheim the Illusionist),
written for the screen and directed by Neil Burger (only
his second filmic offering), THE ILLUSIONIST probably
gave its hand away even earlier during gratuitous backstory,
where our fledgling magician Hero - a lowly peasant boy
at the time - was smitten by a young upper class girl whom
he is forcefully separated from due to bigotry of the caste
system - and dramatic foreshadowing.
Despite
its overarching inanity, Burger scored big with two of the
greatest actors in cinema today: Edward Norton (as Eisenheim)
and Paul Giamatti (as Chief Inspector Uhl). Even so, Norton
does not quite fill the aura of the master magician; his
eye is not striking enough and his brow is not brooding
enough; Rufus Sewell (who plays Crown Prince Leopold) has
more of a commanding magician's look about him. Giamatti,
on the other hand, burns down the screen with yet another
chameleonic performance, astounding in its seamlessness
and emphatic in its conflict - that of a man torn between
supporting Eisenheim's cause and advancing his own career
by unlawfully harassing Eisenheim at the petulant Crown
Prince's behest.
Burger
uses the passé technique of starting the story in
the middle, telling the first half of the film in flashback
and letting it "catch up with itself" in the middle, thereby distracting us more than misdirecting
us, for there was no compelling reason to do so, other than
to call attention to how smart he fancied himself for doing
so.
Set
in 1900 Vienna (with Philip Glass's soundtrack unmistakably
evoking the period) we discover that the Crown Prince's
betrothed, Duchess Sophie, (played with sensual style and
bangin' buttocks by Jennifer Biel) is Eisenheim's love of
his youth; accidentally re-discovering each other during
one of Eisenheim's toast-of-the-town performances, she decides
to flee the Prince and do the anonymous country girl shuffle
with Eisenheim.
This
sets in motion a chain of events that are not what they
seem. At one point, the story seemed to thankfully violate
Hollywood Romantic Protocol with the death of the Duchess
- without the female love interest, the film would be forced
to do something interesting through its third act - but,
as we discover, this plot point is merely sleight of hand,
all explained in a last-minute montage of crash-cuts straight
out of OCEAN'S TWELVE. Plot twists serve a movie best when they
reveal something startling, but this movie's pretentiousness
in speculating on Eisenheim's communing with the dead or
overthrowing an empire belies its prosaic outcome - monogamy.
Eisenheim's
stage tricks were all sleight-of-CGI, which was yet another
distraction, as the illusions were too extreme. Since this
tale is told through the eyes of Detective Uhl, Eisenheim
could have just as easily presented "real" illusions,
challenging enough to be considered supernatural by the
virgin crowds of the day (as Arthur C. Clarke notes, "Any
sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic") but in making them truly inexplicable (growing
an orange tree in seconds, conjuring ghosts - attired in
the couture of the period - walking through the audience),
the movie leans on us to regard them as supernatural (as
his audiences do). If so, then we must question the obvious:
"Do clothes have souls too?" (Otherwise, why aren't
the ghosts naked? Does the supernatural world respect the
propriety of Victorian-morals Europe and employ ectoplasmic
clothing mimicry?)
The
fact that this point is never raised with Eisenheim's 1900's
audience may be construed as proof of their credulity or
unsophistication - but think of all the years you in 2006
have been exposed to ghost stories and horror movies; ghosts
are always wandering some Elizabethan hallway or haunting
some teen model completely clothed - you've never
considered this anomalous either! It is this unquestioning
acceptance that religions rely on to keep humanity marginally
retarded with fairy tales masquerading as history (but that's
another essay)…
Of
course, the grandest illusion is that which our species
perpetrates on itself - using "love" and "romance"
to façade more earthy human proclivities. In a biological
system geared towards the continuance of Life, procreation
is nothing short of Life's Prime Directive. Mating is good.
The Villains are the hypocrisy of "love" and "romance." THE ILLUSIONIST glorifies these Villains morbidly.
Sophie
and Eisenheim delude themselves that their "love"
for each other justifies their heinous framing of the Prince.
Society seemingly advocates their premeditated crime, for
when Inspector Uhl figures out the plot, rather than arrest
Eisenheim for deviously driving a man to suicide, he simply
laughs at Eisenheim's ingenuity (which involved slipping
someone a mickey, faking a death, public slander, planting
evidence - all crimes, even in 1900 Vienna) because Eisenheim
"did it for love" of course.
THE ILLUSIONIST worked its most egregious misdirection
by invoking "love" (which in reality is nothing
more than two evolved apes panting over each other's genitals)
and making felonies look like family entertainment.
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THE
ILLUSIONIST (Aug 2006)
Director: Neil Burger.
Writers: Neil Burger, Steven Millhauser.
Starring: Edward
Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel, Rufus Sewell, Eddie Marsan,
Jake Wood, Tom Fisher, Aaron Johnson, Eleanor Tomlinson, Karl
Johnson.
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