Common Sense Note
Parents should know that the film includes some mysterious behaviors and effects, so the magic tricks and ghostly apparitions look convincing (via digital help). The prince abuses his fiancée verbally and physically. She appears to be stabbed, her neck and torso bloodied; her body is discovered floating in a river. She later appears as a ghost (among other ghosts) for a magician's show, frightening and awing the audience. Characters wield swords and the men threaten one another with violence, leading to a fight at film's end. One sex scene emphasizes the passion of the moment, without explicit nakedness. One character uses the f-word.
Families can discuss the appeal of magic shows and tricks: Why do the tricks fascinate us? How is it fun to try to figure out the deception (as the prince and the detective try to do)? How does the prince's presumption of his power make him seem selfish and greedy? How does the detective frame the story as an investigation, with his limited knowledge of events and motives?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
A ravishing romance framed as a slow-moving mystery, THE ILLUSIONIST smartly questions the distinctions and overlaps between belief and truth. On one hand, it concerns a young couple whose love is denied by their class differences. In between, the film also looks at class and gender conflicts, with an acknowledgment of racism of the day (19th century Vienna).
The son of a cabinetmaker, young Edward Ambramovitz falls in love with a beautiful girl, Sophie. He charms her with his interest in magic and ornate devices (he fashions for her a trick wooden locket with his picture in it), but because she's royalty, their friendship, even as it develops into young love, is forbidden. After they're dragged apart one night, he disappears, leaving Sophie to follow her fate, that is, to be married off in a royal arrangement.
All this is revealed (as flashback) at the film's beginning by Viennese Police Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti), who is assigned by Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) to discover the truth behind a mysterious magician called Eisenheim (this is young Edward grown up to be played by Edward Norton). The prince is affianced to Sophie (now played by Jessica Biel), and means to contain the appeal of the showman. Not only does Sophie appear strangely drawn to him, but so do all his subjects.
The film follows Uhl's investigation (he narrates, rather endearingly limiting our perspective to his) as it comes to encompass Sophie's bloody murder. As this occurs following a tryst between the reunited lovers, the prince looks like the culprit, but he's so powerful that no one will accuse him. At this point, Uhl's story becomes a moral dilemma for him. Ambitious, he wants a place in the prince's evolving empire, but he also distrusts the man.
Aided considerably by Philip Glass' typically swirling score, the film uses Uhl's skepticism to offset Edward's inscrutability and Sophie's passion, but all three characters live earnestly in a realm of faith and trust. While they all oppose the practical, egotistical prince by nature, they also fall under his rule. Leopold, by turn, hates their romanticism.
This disturbing effect is exacerbated when Edward fires his Viennese aid and hires a group of Chinese assistants, making his show even more "exotic," as he also begins to bring ghosts onto the stage each night. The citizens of Vienna are thrilled and afraid, while the prince is increasingly furious at his loss of control. At last, the film makes a predictable point about true, transcendent love, but its route to that end is elegant.
Families who like this movie should see other movies set in Vienna, like The Third Man or Amadeus, or The Blue Angel (with Marlene Dietrich as a sultry Berlin stage performer who mesmerizes a schoolteacher).
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentCouple who are deeply in love kiss passionately and have sex, in filtered light and tight close-ups (not explicit). |
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ViolencePrince shoots at birds, keeps animal heads (from hunting) on his walls, brutalizes his fiancée, and covets a family sword used in a magic trick; duchess appears to be stabbed (bloodied neck) and dead (her pale body on display, then her ghost appears on stage); an angry mob demands that the magician be released from police custody. |
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LanguageOne f-word; prince calls his fiancée a "whore." Magician's Chinese assistants called "Orientals." |
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Social BehaviorCruel prince abuses his power; rumors circulate that magician has sold is soul to the devil; ambitious detective eventually does the right thing. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoDetective smokes a pipe; wealthy characters drink wine and smoke cigarettes. |
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