The Illusionist is one of the best movies in all of 2006, one which, unfortunately, will probably not get the props it deserves.
The movie is set in turn-of-the-century Vienna. It begins with a show by a traveling magician named Eisenheim being shut down by the chief of police. We then flash back to Eisenheim’s adolescence, when he is in love with the woman of his dreams. But his love is forbidden on account of the huge class difference between his family and hers.
So Eisenheim sets out to see the world. In the process he becomes a masterful magician. Fifteen years later he returns to Vienna and performs a show. Austrian Crown Prince Leopold is in attendance, and when Eisenheim asks for a volunteer who is not afraid of death for his next trick, Leopold volunteers his fiancee. (Don’t you just love a man like that?) Leopold’s fiancee turns out to be Eisenheim’s long-lost lover, and this puts the two men on a collision course.
At a command performance for Prince Leopold, Eisenheim insults him by suggesting that he should make him disappear, and then performing a trick which turns out to be far more offensive than that. Eventually, Eisenheim is forced to leave Vienna.
After some time, Eisenheim returns–but with a new wrinkle to his act. Now he can supposedly conjure up spirits and return loved ones from the dead–or at least provide the illusion thereof. Eisenheim asks his lover to break off his engagement with Prince Leopold, but he does not take this very graciously and has her killed as she is attempting to escape. Or so we think at first.
The story moves on toward its original beginning–the scene where Eisenheim’s show is shut down by the chief of police. Eisenheim pulls off an unbelievable escape, and is later reunited with his lover, who, it turns out, is not dead after all. Meanwhile Prince Leopold, who was depending on the marriage to solidify his bid to overthrow his father’s kingdom, ends in disgrace.
I loved this movie. The story reminded me of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo in many ways. Both stories featured a main character whose love interest was snatched away early in life. In both stories, the main character grows into a popular and powerful figure who wreaks revenge on his enemies. And both stories end with an incredible escape and lovers reuniting after being apparently dead.
There are some differences between the two stories, though. In The Count of Monte Cristo, the lovers who are reunited at the end are friends of the main character. In The Illusionist, it is the main character and his love interest who are reunited. In The Count of Monte Cristo, the main character’s love interest gives up on him and marries his rival, and comes to regret this terribly at the end when he is disgraced.
Another key difference is that in The Count of Monte Cristo, we are certain that the enemies who are disgraced deserve what they got, because their disgrace is clearly tied to actions later in life that had nothing to do with the main character. But in The Illusionist, it seems that there is no real reason for Prince Leopold’s ultimate disgrace other than the fact that he happened to be in the unfortunate position of being Eisenheim’s rival in love.
Also, in The Count of Monte Cristo, the main character learns over the course of the story that his attempts to impose justice through his powers are flawed and have unintended consequences upon innocent victims. Because of this, he acknowledges at the end that “in God alone is supreme power and infinite wisdom” and “until the day comes when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these words: Wait and hope!” But in The Illusionist, we see no such change in the character of Eisenheim. Throughout the movie, he remains a silent, unreachable, unknowable figure who perhaps considers himself equal with God. It is only his love interest that produces in him the spark of anything even remotely human.
Still, I loved this movie. It is an excellent plot story which hearkens back to a romantic time and place. Get the DVD and see it, if you haven’t already.
