JAM Reviews The Illusionist - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

The Illusionist – Blu-Ray : Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Review by JAM

Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl who was beyond his meager means, but she loved him as well. And though time and distance kept them apart, magic would always keep them together. This is an abbreviated premise for The Illusionist, an excellent gem of a movie where Eisenheim (Edward Norton) and Sophie (Jessica Biel), the Duchess von Teschen, fall in love even though it was not to be allowed and must eventually move heaven and earth to be together.

Chief Inspector Walter Uhl (Paul Giamatti) begins the movie recounting the story of Eisenheim (Norton) to Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) after an attempted arrest of Eisenheim during a magic show seemingly filled with necromantic tendencies. Eisenheim had long ago become obsessed with the world of magic and illusion, training and traveling the world while honing his craft. Before this, he had fallen in love with a young noblewoman above his stature, Sophie (Biel), while his father was doing cabinetry work for her parents. The two were forbidden to be together, yet tried to find a way and failed, leading to Eisenheim’s obsessive trek around the globe.

Finding Sophie once again by chance, or so we suppose, when she is volunteered by her husband to be, the Crown Prince Leopold. Reconnecting to their pasts and reconfirming their love, Eisenheim and Sophie plan to flee the Empire, but must first deal with the Crown Prince, a man of ruthless ambition who plans to steal the crown from his father with the help of his marriage to Sophie, who he views as expendable in the end. Leopold hears of Sophie’s meetings with Eisenheim from Uhl, confronts, and seems to have murdered her. Eisenheim drops into a deep depression and prepares a new magic show in which he seems to have summoned spirits. Sophie’s summoned spirit confronts Leopold, in disguise at the show, and causes Eisenheim to be arrested though his body fades and disappears like the spirits of the show.

We return to the beginning of the show in which Uhl continues his discussion with Leopold and shares the evidence which links him to Sophie’s murder. When confronted, ordered, and then begged to hold his tongue, Uhl shares that he has already informed the Emperor of Leopold’s conspiracy causing the Crown Prince to shoot himself before his arrest is made. Uhl discovers after the fact that the murder of Sophie was truly just another illusion of Eisenheim’s to frame Leopold, deliver deserved vengeance upon him, and free Sophie and Eisenheim to live the lives they desired.

JAMS Ink on The Illusionist

Edward Norton is one of those actors that I am just never really sure on. I mean, he just seems to pick characters in movies that don’t always appeal to me, and I think that may have been why I had not caught this movie at the time it came out. It had also come out near the same time as The Prestige, and being a bit of a Hugh Jackman fan at the time caused this one to be off my radar. Well, thank you to 20th Century Fox for the chance to check out The Illusionist on Blu-Ray and DVD. The chance to see a movie in which you question what is happening, what is going on, who is involved in what subplot makes the movie an interesting challenge to watch, but easy to enjoy.

The look of recognition on the stage that Eisenheim (Norton) has is an impressive bit of acting as his eyes betray his recognition even as his voice maintains the façade throughout the illusion. And the look upon Sophie’s (Biel) face when finally she realizes is priceless as well. It is just very good directing, acting, and a strong scene with hidden emotion that is fulfilled further into the movie.

Jessica Biel plays an interesting character in this movie, torn between two men with powers beyond the norm, caught between her past and her future as she attempts to maneuver her way through life. Her costuming leaves something to be desired, as it seems they went out of their way to attempt to make her unattractive through use of costuming and the such, but she definitely did a good job showing strength and weakness within her character throughout the movie.

For some reason, Paul Giammati’s character Chief Inspector Uhl bugged me some in the movie, and I don’t think it was the character himself, or the lines, or even Paul’s voice. It was his eyes. It seemed that throughout the movie, Paul had his eyes bugging out as much as humanly possible, and it really detracted from the scenes I think. When he was surprised, they bugged out. When he was amused, they bugged out. When he was angry, they bugged out. I don’t know what the deal was, but the bugged out eyes really bothered me.

EXTRAS

The Blu-Ray disc itself had no extras, but the DVD had audio commentary from the writer/director Neil Burger, a featurette on the Making of The Illusionist, and Jessica Biel in The Illusionist featurette. I definitely would have liked to have seen more extras on the discs, especially since the Blu-Ray only contained the movie.

The Illusionist from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment magically appeared on shelves on June 8, 2010 and fans are in process of making it disappear. Grab a copy of a movie that will play with your perceptions, tease your senses, and tear at your heart.

THE ILLUSIONIST BLU-RAY DISC + DVD Screen Format: Widescreen – 1.85:1 Audio: English 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio, English and French 5.1 Dolby Digital Subtitles: None U.S. Rating: PG-13 Total Run Time: 109 minutes Closed Captioned: Yes

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