I felt this was a fairly straightforward film about a gifted child magician who fell in love with a girl outside of his class, and she with him, and many years later, he's in town and she, being engaged to the crown prince, is in the audience, and they recognize each other.
Good start, and I cared about these characters. However, the crown prince (Sewell) was written very two-dimensionally, utterly devoid of any real charm--just a petty, jealous man who may have already beaten and killed one of his fiancees before.
In short, the magician Eisenheim (Norton) and the girl, Duchess of Teschen (Biel), requite their love and decide to escape Vienna and the crown prince. However, we are led to believe that the prince stabbed her in the neck with his sword, and she never made the rendezvous with Eisenheim the night they planned to escape. The film shows us Eisenheim's concern, but this is all fake, because in reality (SPOILER)....the entire thing was staged by he and she so that her fake death would finally release her to run away with Eisenheim, and the prince would not "hunt us down and have us killed" as the duchess warned, had she been alive. The entire town of Vienna mourns for her, and afterward Eisenheim does a series of magic shows focusing on raising dead spirits, including the duchess, which arouses the ire of Inspector Uhl, who works for the prince.
The denouement, therefore, shows Inspector Uhl (Giamatti) finally figuring out that the crown prince, not some poor sap rotting in jail, may have killed the duchess, he confronts him, where the prince shoots himself in the head with a pistol. Uhl is for some reason relieved of his duties, and Eisenheim manages to give him a "hint' that all may not be as it seems, and the end shows that the duchess has indeed escaped death and is waiting for her lover at a horse stable outside of town. Happy ending, right?
***PLOT HOLES***
First, it is never quite clear what Uhl's motivation is in trying to persecute Eisenheim. Even after the death of the duchess, it is Uhl, not the crown prince, who wants to persecute the magician ("What is this magician to me?" asks the prince), even after he is not a suspect in the duchess's death. So what--he does shows that bring to life "dead spirits"--how is that crown business? Only after he raises the Duchess's spirit, and the people start accusing the prince of murder, does it make sense.
Second, what happened to the Duchess's body? About 100 people saw her floating dead in a creek. We are led to believe that Eisenheim made her "appear dead" and then revived her with some potion. Um...she's the DUCHESS OF TESCHEN--the police are going to take her body! She is going to be buried! So we are to believe, at the end of the film, that the magician easily 'disappeared' the duchess's body or replaced it with someone else's? I don't think so!
Third, what about the poor sap rotting in jail who did NOT kill anyone? How is THAT a happy ending? Why would he confess? Who is he? The film callously disregards his plight, as do the magician and the duchess.
Fourth, after they faked the death, why did Eisenheim stick around and do these "dead spirit shows" anyway, esp. Bringing back to life the "Duchess"? Was it to just mess with Uhl and the prince? Realistically, once they faked the duchess's death, they should have absconded right afterwards. But no, the magician sticks around and forces the prince's men to persecute and harrass him FOR NO REASON.
Finally, I did not buy that someone so dim as Inspector Uhl, who at once did not suspect the magician, but did not suspect the prince either, would have figured out, at the very end, through the slightest of clues, that Eisenheim eloped with the living Duchess, engineering the entire "illusion" of her death. He goes back to the stable and finds 2 clues, a jewel from the prince's sword, and the wood locket the magician gave to the duchess as a child. He grabs both and confronts the prince, accusing him of murder. After the suicide, Uhl leaves the castle and is given a notebook by a street urchin. The notebook is the same one Uhl found the schematic of the locket, and somehow it's supposed to mean something. What? He quickly checks his pocket, and the locket is missing--the magician crept up and picked his pocket! Huh? He tries to chase down a man he suspects of being Eisenheim in disguise, but ends up losing him at the train station, and suddenly realizes that the entire realm has been tricked by this magician--the duchess is ALIVE and the magician and she have escaped together. The inspector laughs and the cleverness.
Well, it's not clear what the book of the orange tree trick, the locket, the locket instructions, or the pickpocketing of the locket would have to do with Uhl being made to think the entire thing was a trick. Again, DUCHESS'S BODY?? That would be a massive trick in itself to disappear the body and let the realm think they buried her. But because this movie wanted so much to have this "twist", they tried to flimsily wrap it up in the last few minutes, and it does not hold up to scrutiny.
Anyway, it was an okay movie and it had a happy ending (ignoring the falsely imprisoned man).
Some had issue with the fact that Eisenheim's incredible illusions were not explained at all. This is a fair point at the end, because a little boy walking along the aisle that nobody can touch truly is a shocking illusion. However, it's a movie, and CGI was used to give artistic license, and make us feel what the audience felt, that this was no mere magician, but a sorcerer, and that did not hurt the movie.
This movie was not as good or tightly-wrapped as the much-superior "The Prestige", which came out the same year.
Good start, and I cared about these characters. However, the crown prince (Sewell) was written very two-dimensionally, utterly devoid of any real charm--just a petty, jealous man who may have already beaten and killed one of his fiancees before.
In short, the magician Eisenheim (Norton) and the girl, Duchess of Teschen (Biel), requite their love and decide to escape Vienna and the crown prince. However, we are led to believe that the prince stabbed her in the neck with his sword, and she never made the rendezvous with Eisenheim the night they planned to escape. The film shows us Eisenheim's concern, but this is all fake, because in reality (SPOILER)....the entire thing was staged by he and she so that her fake death would finally release her to run away with Eisenheim, and the prince would not "hunt us down and have us killed" as the duchess warned, had she been alive. The entire town of Vienna mourns for her, and afterward Eisenheim does a series of magic shows focusing on raising dead spirits, including the duchess, which arouses the ire of Inspector Uhl, who works for the prince.
The denouement, therefore, shows Inspector Uhl (Giamatti) finally figuring out that the crown prince, not some poor sap rotting in jail, may have killed the duchess, he confronts him, where the prince shoots himself in the head with a pistol. Uhl is for some reason relieved of his duties, and Eisenheim manages to give him a "hint' that all may not be as it seems, and the end shows that the duchess has indeed escaped death and is waiting for her lover at a horse stable outside of town. Happy ending, right?
***PLOT HOLES***
First, it is never quite clear what Uhl's motivation is in trying to persecute Eisenheim. Even after the death of the duchess, it is Uhl, not the crown prince, who wants to persecute the magician ("What is this magician to me?" asks the prince), even after he is not a suspect in the duchess's death. So what--he does shows that bring to life "dead spirits"--how is that crown business? Only after he raises the Duchess's spirit, and the people start accusing the prince of murder, does it make sense.
Second, what happened to the Duchess's body? About 100 people saw her floating dead in a creek. We are led to believe that Eisenheim made her "appear dead" and then revived her with some potion. Um...she's the DUCHESS OF TESCHEN--the police are going to take her body! She is going to be buried! So we are to believe, at the end of the film, that the magician easily 'disappeared' the duchess's body or replaced it with someone else's? I don't think so!
Third, what about the poor sap rotting in jail who did NOT kill anyone? How is THAT a happy ending? Why would he confess? Who is he? The film callously disregards his plight, as do the magician and the duchess.
Fourth, after they faked the death, why did Eisenheim stick around and do these "dead spirit shows" anyway, esp. Bringing back to life the "Duchess"? Was it to just mess with Uhl and the prince? Realistically, once they faked the duchess's death, they should have absconded right afterwards. But no, the magician sticks around and forces the prince's men to persecute and harrass him FOR NO REASON.
Finally, I did not buy that someone so dim as Inspector Uhl, who at once did not suspect the magician, but did not suspect the prince either, would have figured out, at the very end, through the slightest of clues, that Eisenheim eloped with the living Duchess, engineering the entire "illusion" of her death. He goes back to the stable and finds 2 clues, a jewel from the prince's sword, and the wood locket the magician gave to the duchess as a child. He grabs both and confronts the prince, accusing him of murder. After the suicide, Uhl leaves the castle and is given a notebook by a street urchin. The notebook is the same one Uhl found the schematic of the locket, and somehow it's supposed to mean something. What? He quickly checks his pocket, and the locket is missing--the magician crept up and picked his pocket! Huh? He tries to chase down a man he suspects of being Eisenheim in disguise, but ends up losing him at the train station, and suddenly realizes that the entire realm has been tricked by this magician--the duchess is ALIVE and the magician and she have escaped together. The inspector laughs and the cleverness.
Well, it's not clear what the book of the orange tree trick, the locket, the locket instructions, or the pickpocketing of the locket would have to do with Uhl being made to think the entire thing was a trick. Again, DUCHESS'S BODY?? That would be a massive trick in itself to disappear the body and let the realm think they buried her. But because this movie wanted so much to have this "twist", they tried to flimsily wrap it up in the last few minutes, and it does not hold up to scrutiny.
Anyway, it was an okay movie and it had a happy ending (ignoring the falsely imprisoned man).
Some had issue with the fact that Eisenheim's incredible illusions were not explained at all. This is a fair point at the end, because a little boy walking along the aisle that nobody can touch truly is a shocking illusion. However, it's a movie, and CGI was used to give artistic license, and make us feel what the audience felt, that this was no mere magician, but a sorcerer, and that did not hurt the movie.
This movie was not as good or tightly-wrapped as the much-superior "The Prestige", which came out the same year.
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