Here in Australia we’ve had to wait ten months for this film to appear on our screens. I imagine distributors wanted a bit of a gap between Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige and Neil Burger’s The Illusionist, and – however frustrating – the move does make sense, because these films share more than a little in common. In turn of the century Vienna, illusionist Eisenheim is unparalleled in his field, and his performances have most of the city in awe of him. Soon questions are raised as to whether they are merely tricks being performed… or something else. But there the similarities stop.
Phillip Glass’ score is pretty much constant, and sadly a little too reminiscent of previous work. After his brilliant (yet overbearing) approach in Notes on a Scandal the music here is a little disappointing. The cinematography is beautiful, and the filmmakers have gone to great lengths to make this period piece look authentic – complete with the old fashioned mechanical closing of the iris instead of a cut to black.
Alas The Illusionist fails in a way similar to The Prestige – it’s rather predictable. There’s nothing more disappointing than a bad magician (‘Mummy I can see the coin – it’s in his other hand!’), and both films go out of their way to try and be tricky only to fail. Even more annoying, The Illusionist doesn’t explain all of its ambiguities, and we’re left with a couple of very frustrating unanswered questions.