The Illusionist
March 2007 Reviewed by: Anthony Di Marco Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

The Illusionist is more about empowerment than sleight of hand; more about religion and faith than the mechanics of a trick. Master magician Eisenheim offered the repressed people of 19th-century Vienna more than entertainment; he offered them something to believe in beyond their crippled lives. His magic evokes many of the same qualities that exist in formal religions, giving context to the mystery that makes up humanity’s existence. While Eisenheim personifies the creative, inventive aspects of the human condition, Crown Prince Leopold sucks the magic out of life’s mysteries by empirical examination. To Leopold everything can be reasoned, everything can be explained. His vision on life is black and white while the illusionist demonstrates the many gray shades of existence.

This story is hypnotic in its telling. Images bear the likeness of what one may have seen through the lens of Louis Lumiere’s cinematographe. A black halo surrounds all images and the density of blacks and the shallowness of the image suggest shots captured by nothing more than candlelight. Neil Burger’s direction takes care of the mood and pacing while top-shelf performances by Edward Norton, Rufus Sewell and Paul Giamatti give presence and depth to their interesting characters. Jessica Biel (whom I last watched in the B-flick Stealth) more than matches the talent and subtlety of her male colleagues. The film’s love story is a vehicle for what is really a commentary on the politics and sensibilities of society at the time.

Dense blacks and patina hues make up much of The Illusionist’s color palette. There is copious film grain and very little color saturation. Sound is designed with the goal of propelling the narrative. Dialogue is clear and clean while surrounds are strictly used for atmospheric filler. A rifle shot halfway through the film is the only moment of dynamic expression. Philip Glass delivers a score that is all about mood not drama. It swirls and ebbs with iterative motions. It, like the ambient sounds and image, is devised to deliver the story, not call attention from it.

The low budget of this film probably precluded the use of an extra film crew to chronicle the production, so I didn’t expect to see the four-hour retrospective I’d get after a film with the budget of Lord of the Rings. But I could have done even without the filler the DVD production chose to include. A three-minute junket documentary and an even shorter version giving Jessica Biel’s perspective on The Illusionist are an embarrassment, especially when the majority of Ms. Biel’s time is blatantly ripped from the first short! Thank goodness, Neil Burger’s intelligent and informative recollection of the filmmaking process is so good. Director Burger apparently knows his subject and went to great length to make sure the story he told was more than a cinematic trick of shadow and light.

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