The Illusionist - Music, Mustaches and Murder

The Illusionist

Director: Neil Burger

I saw remarkable things. But the only mystery I never solved was why my heart couldn't let go of you.
–Eisenheim

Perhaps there’s truth in this illusion –Inspector Uhl

Everything you have seen is an illusion: a trick. –Eisenheim

I let the opening menu cycle through as I typed the words printed on the Netflix envelope:

With his eyes on a lovely aristocrat, a gifted illusionist named Eisenheim uses his powers to win her away from her betrothed, a crowned prince. But Eisenheim’s scheme creates tumult within the monarchy and ignites the suspicion of a dogged inspector. Set in early 1900s Vienna, this lush period drama from writer-director Neil Burger earned an Oscar nod for Best Cinematography.

That is why it is the music I noticed first. The beautiful, somewhat haunting yet hopeful melody playing through the menu’s loop expands into a moving orchestral piece during the opening credits, as the picture offers glimpses of what’s to come. They are tiny snippets of the most artistically beautiful pieces of the film… which of course I didn’t fully realize or appreciate until replaying the opening after the close.

This movie opens, as many do, near the end. We must witness this fragment of the present before being taken to the past, where the story’s ending truly begins.

While I watched the movie unfold, several thoughts crept through my head, some of them based on predispositions toward actors, some of them based on moments of the acting. The first is that because of previous roles Edward Norton has filled, I find his face untrustworthy, despite the character’s temperament. Though I suppose that is the very reason why he should be cast as an illusionist, whose very goal is to manipulate the trust of his audiences.

The second thought I had was that the actress who portrayed the young Sophie looks very similar to adult Jessica Biel. Another bit of exceptional casting, as I am often distracted when children in flashbacks look nothing like their “present-day” version except in hair color. I applaud the casting director as well as all those involved in the musical score, which continues to be – throughout the movie – absolutely brilliant.

Another thought – more pertaining to the plot of the movie – was that she could not possibly be dead. I refused to believe it, even as they dragged her body from the river and both doctor and inspector examined her pulse and found none. While I don’t feel that all movies deserve to end happily, I couldn’t help but believe that this one should.

At the end of the movie, which is really the continuation of the beginning’s end, I don’t know how he created every illusion and I don’t want to. It is more fulfilling to believe in the magic. I do, however, applaud Inspector Uhl for piecing the puzzle together; and I do understand.

Aside from the score and the casting – Paul Giamatti was magnificent as Uhl, and I enjoyed Eddie Marsan as Josef – the most enchanting and most distracting feature of the movie was hair. While Paul Giamatti’s face is made for facial hair, to the point that I consider him a much more vulnerable and naive character without it, the shapes that they have chosen for his Inspector Uhl are perfect. It’s well-kept, yet looks slightly longer than a fashionable or high-class man’s would, which is quite befitting of Uhl’s meager upbringing and desperate hold on the Crown Prince’s royal coattails. Similarly, I adore the oil-slicked and slightly curled mustache of Josef and the triangular version sported by the Crown Prince. However, I found myself constantly distracted by the Illusionist’s hair: the hair on his face was too well-maintained and the hair on his head far too… fluffy. It just didn’t seem right.

I tried to figure out what this movie was saying to me… what it wanted me to know, to learn. And I think I eventually figured it out…

My takeaway: the truest love is not lost to distance; the best illusions are lost without it. And music really does make a movie.