The Illusionist
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.� -- Matthew 6:22-23
When Jesus preached those words in the Sermon on the Mount, he essentially was saying that life could be an illusion. Or, as put by the tagline to one of the best films so far this year, “nothing is what it seems.�
The Illusionist takes viewers on a captivating journey to 19th-century Vienna, where Eisenheim, a mysterious magician played by Edward Norton (Kingdom of Heaven, Fight Club), returns after years of absence to amaze and stun the people with his performances. His popularity captures the attention of Viennese officials, who seek to unmask the performer as a fraud, in part to cover their own deceptions.
Made by the producers of Crash, last year’s Oscar-winning best picture, The Illusionist combines political machinations, romance, turn-of-the-century beauty and the supernatural into a powerful story that illustrates how our lives can be shaped by the way we choose to perceive the world around us. If we see things clearly, we are not deceived. But if the hand is quicker than our eyes, our judgments could be shrouded in darkness.
If the question of perception isn’t enough, what makes The Illusionist the best film I’ve seen so far this year is the way this deftly crafted story is filled with rich and fascinating characters. Written and directed by Neil Burger (based on the short story “Eisenheim the Illusionist� by Steven Millhauser), this film is destined for best screenplay nominations at award time.
The 110-minute film is a character-driven movie, and perhaps nowhere is that better illustrated than in the portrayal of Chief Inspector Uhl by Paul Giamatti (Sideways, Lady in the Water, Cinderella Man). Giamatti’s performance is stunning as a man torn between his search for the truth and his desire for professional advancement through his service to the Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell). The Chief Inspector becomes our point of view for the film as we wonder whether Eisenheim’s performances are well-contrived illusions or the supernatural deeds many in his audience believe them to be.
Immediately suspicious of the magician, the Crown Prince becomes involved in a more direct rivalry with Eisenheim when it is discovered that the magician was a forbidden childhood sweetheart of the prince’s fiancée, the duchess Sophie von Teschen, played by Jessica Biel (Elizabethtown). As a peasant boy, Eisenheim watched as his love was taken from him; as a powerful magician, will he stand aside a second time? Especially when, beneath all her finery, Sophie still wears a wooden locket Eisenheim made for her years ago – a locket that contains his picture and can only be opened in a special way.
Enhanced by a beautiful score by contemporary composer Philip Glass, The Illusionist raises the question of whether truth can exist in an illusion. Eisenheim openly proclaims, “Everything you have seen here is an illusion.� While the Crown Prince, scheming to overthrow his father, insists that nothing is up his sleeve. These two perspectives cannot co-exist – especially when Eisenheim directly challenges the Crown Prince’s right to rule with one of his tricks.
The Illusionist helps us to realize the thin boundary that exists between illusion and reality, love and obsession, public service and self-interest, life and death. And its surprising plot twists will certainly test your level of perceptivity. In the end, although perceptions affect one’s view of the world, it is the choices we make that determine our fate.
When Jesus preached those words in the Sermon on the Mount, he essentially was saying that life could be an illusion. Or, as put by the tagline to one of the best films so far this year, “nothing is what it seems.�
The Illusionist takes viewers on a captivating journey to 19th-century Vienna, where Eisenheim, a mysterious magician played by Edward Norton (Kingdom of Heaven, Fight Club), returns after years of absence to amaze and stun the people with his performances. His popularity captures the attention of Viennese officials, who seek to unmask the performer as a fraud, in part to cover their own deceptions.
Made by the producers of Crash, last year’s Oscar-winning best picture, The Illusionist combines political machinations, romance, turn-of-the-century beauty and the supernatural into a powerful story that illustrates how our lives can be shaped by the way we choose to perceive the world around us. If we see things clearly, we are not deceived. But if the hand is quicker than our eyes, our judgments could be shrouded in darkness.
If the question of perception isn’t enough, what makes The Illusionist the best film I’ve seen so far this year is the way this deftly crafted story is filled with rich and fascinating characters. Written and directed by Neil Burger (based on the short story “Eisenheim the Illusionist� by Steven Millhauser), this film is destined for best screenplay nominations at award time.
The 110-minute film is a character-driven movie, and perhaps nowhere is that better illustrated than in the portrayal of Chief Inspector Uhl by Paul Giamatti (Sideways, Lady in the Water, Cinderella Man). Giamatti’s performance is stunning as a man torn between his search for the truth and his desire for professional advancement through his service to the Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell). The Chief Inspector becomes our point of view for the film as we wonder whether Eisenheim’s performances are well-contrived illusions or the supernatural deeds many in his audience believe them to be.
Immediately suspicious of the magician, the Crown Prince becomes involved in a more direct rivalry with Eisenheim when it is discovered that the magician was a forbidden childhood sweetheart of the prince’s fiancée, the duchess Sophie von Teschen, played by Jessica Biel (Elizabethtown). As a peasant boy, Eisenheim watched as his love was taken from him; as a powerful magician, will he stand aside a second time? Especially when, beneath all her finery, Sophie still wears a wooden locket Eisenheim made for her years ago – a locket that contains his picture and can only be opened in a special way.
Enhanced by a beautiful score by contemporary composer Philip Glass, The Illusionist raises the question of whether truth can exist in an illusion. Eisenheim openly proclaims, “Everything you have seen here is an illusion.� While the Crown Prince, scheming to overthrow his father, insists that nothing is up his sleeve. These two perspectives cannot co-exist – especially when Eisenheim directly challenges the Crown Prince’s right to rule with one of his tricks.
The Illusionist helps us to realize the thin boundary that exists between illusion and reality, love and obsession, public service and self-interest, life and death. And its surprising plot twists will certainly test your level of perceptivity. In the end, although perceptions affect one’s view of the world, it is the choices we make that determine our fate.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home