Morgan BellREVIEW: The Illusionist
March 24th 2008 06:10
Directed & Written: Neil Burger (based on short story by Steven Milhauser)
Starring: Edward Norton (Keeping the Faith, Fight Club, American History X), Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man, The Truman Show), Rufus Sewell (Tristan & Isolde, A Knights Tale), Jessica Biel (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, TVs 7th Heaven)
As I watched this film I was distracted by how familiar the musical score was, it is almost identical to the music from The Hours . . . I later discovered both scores were composed by Philip Glass . . . I wonder if he offered the producers a discount rate for a recycled soundtrack? It was however effective music in both films, with all the determination of water running its natural course downhill, it suits an unraveling story, a mystery, something we know there is a twist to but we must follow with trepidation to discover. Just like The Hours, The Illusionist is a film about anticipation. Norton plays Eisenheim the Illusionist in 1900s Vienna, and Biel is his childhood love. He is separated from her due to wealth and class as children but meets her again as an adult only to discover she is betrothed to the corrupt Crown Prince (Sewell). Biel is a natural beauty whos devotion to Eisenheim never flails and Sewell is suitably detestable, violent and contolling. Norton is poker-faced and guarded . . . Eisenheim is a magician but he exists in the era of kerosene lamps and horses-and-carts which plants seeds of doubt that anyone could conjure such real-looking illusions and apparitions without an element of the mystical, the supernatural . . . Norton barely gives us a hint of Eisenheims true intellectual potential, remaining humble until the very end. The character of Eisenheim is a simple man who is simply driven by wanting the girl. There is a sense of fate about their paths crossing, and it seems there is a pre-defined purpose in our protagonist bettering himself and taking revenge against the upper-classes that prevent him from having a relationship with his one true love. Eisenheim is similar to the protagonists in films like Gattaga or A Knights Tale . . . reaching for the stars, not being limited by the roles they were born into . . . yet in those films acquiring the girl was a mere consequence and it was the ambition for power, fame, glory or self-achievement that motivated the men. In The Illusionist love is the motivating factor, it is a far more basic love story, a love conquers all, or true love never dies kind of tale. The love is the one thing we can count on to be true and the rest we can decide if it is an illusion . . . .
Starring: Edward Norton (Keeping the Faith, Fight Club, American History X), Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man, The Truman Show), Rufus Sewell (Tristan & Isolde, A Knights Tale), Jessica Biel (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, TVs 7th Heaven)
As I watched this film I was distracted by how familiar the musical score was, it is almost identical to the music from The Hours . . . I later discovered both scores were composed by Philip Glass . . . I wonder if he offered the producers a discount rate for a recycled soundtrack? It was however effective music in both films, with all the determination of water running its natural course downhill, it suits an unraveling story, a mystery, something we know there is a twist to but we must follow with trepidation to discover. Just like The Hours, The Illusionist is a film about anticipation. Norton plays Eisenheim the Illusionist in 1900s Vienna, and Biel is his childhood love. He is separated from her due to wealth and class as children but meets her again as an adult only to discover she is betrothed to the corrupt Crown Prince (Sewell). Biel is a natural beauty whos devotion to Eisenheim never flails and Sewell is suitably detestable, violent and contolling. Norton is poker-faced and guarded . . . Eisenheim is a magician but he exists in the era of kerosene lamps and horses-and-carts which plants seeds of doubt that anyone could conjure such real-looking illusions and apparitions without an element of the mystical, the supernatural . . . Norton barely gives us a hint of Eisenheims true intellectual potential, remaining humble until the very end. The character of Eisenheim is a simple man who is simply driven by wanting the girl. There is a sense of fate about their paths crossing, and it seems there is a pre-defined purpose in our protagonist bettering himself and taking revenge against the upper-classes that prevent him from having a relationship with his one true love. Eisenheim is similar to the protagonists in films like Gattaga or A Knights Tale . . . reaching for the stars, not being limited by the roles they were born into . . . yet in those films acquiring the girl was a mere consequence and it was the ambition for power, fame, glory or self-achievement that motivated the men. In The Illusionist love is the motivating factor, it is a far more basic love story, a love conquers all, or true love never dies kind of tale. The love is the one thing we can count on to be true and the rest we can decide if it is an illusion . . . .
| 95 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by Lilla
Enviro Warrior
An Extra Ordinary Life
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
I just wanted to chime in that I enjoyed the wording of your review of this one.. as it conjured up the 'anticipation' I also felt when watching it. To my way of thinking there is a lot to be said for anticipation, and for me, perhaps the better part of any 'doing.'
The twists in the plot - as the plot itself - had me on the edge of my seat ... but I twigged early. Well perhaps just a premonition that all was not as it seems... but an Illusion.
Most enoyable.
Lilla ...
Comment by Morgan Bell
Deep Pencil
Current Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
Comment by postmoderncritic
Postmodern Critic
Daily Inspirations
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
Comment by Morgan Bell
Deep Pencil
Current Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk