Category: Reviews

Stagecraft gained special attention in 2005 when Neil Burger adapted Steve Millahuser’s story as The Illusionist, and weeks later Christopher Nolan brought us [[[The Prestige]]]. Both were engaging, entertaining movies as much about the characters as it was about nineteenth century magic.

Millhauser, a Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote “Eisenheim the Illusionist” in 1989 and explored an ever-growing fascination with stage magic in Vienna, prompting competitors to try and top one another to satisfy an eager and demanding audience. It was an era when people still believed more often than not in the supernatural, and took the magical feats at face value.

Eisenheim (Edward Norton) is a man jealously guarding his past from the world around him, but has also gained a fascinated fan in the form of police chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti). Uhl was also ordered to expose the man as a fraud by Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell). When Eisenheim is introduced to the Duchess Sophie (Jessica Biel), he recognizes her as the true love of his childhood, complicating his life in new and exciting ways. The infatuation infuriates the jealous prince who wants Eisenheim destroyed.

The story was a terrific road map for Burger, who had previously made a documentary, to enter feature film making. He nicely visualizes the Vienna of the past (thank you Prague), creating an atmosphere appropriate to the mystic world of the [[[Illusionist]]]. The screen adaptation nicely works with multiple themes such as one’s place in society, faith versus reality, order versus lawlessness.

Burger also seems to have a nice handle on actors, coaxing nuanced performances from his talented cast. At first, you could have trouble with Biel as a gentle upper crust woman, but she gives what may be her best work to date. Giamatti is superb, bordering on the obsessive while Norton is steely. All mix together nicely, with Sewell proving to be the straw that stirs the drink and keeps things moving.

Nolan’s offering gained more notice and had bigger stars attached but this is the far more satisfying movie and well worth seeing again or a first time if you missed it.

The movie transfers nicely to Blu-ray and given the dim lighting and moody set pieces, it sharpens up well, accompanied by a nice audio track. We’re lucky the new edition is offered as a combo set since the only extras can be found on the standard DVD, all intact from its initial release.

There is a nine minute Making Of featurette which is far less interesting than its subject matter and a perfunctory Jessica Biel Interview. Instead, the best part is Burger’s commentary, talking of how he expanded Millhauser’s story for the film which meant adding in romance and a murder mystery.  Burger has made only one film since, [[[The Lucky Ones]]], and I wish he were more productive.

The set is definitely worth watching and probably owning since it holds up to repeated viewing.

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One of the interesting themes rarely explored in vampire movies is the idea that the more vampires you create, the more demand there is on the human blood supply. That changed earlier this year with Michael and Peter Spierig’s Daybreakers
. The movie opened in January and explored an America that saw human beings on the brink of extinction while the ruling vampire majority was on the brink of rioting as the blood began getting rationed. Lionsgate released the film on DVD earlier this month.

We’re told some medical pandemic turned mankind into vampires but the rules of vampirism are barely sketched out causing confusion. We do know that blood deprivation begins mutating the vampires from humans with fans to “subsiders”, something more like a man-bat hybrid.

On the one hand, you have pharmaceutical company Bromley Marks, led by the cold, calculating Charles Bromley (Sam Neill). Then you have vampire hematologists Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) and Chris Caruso (Vince Colosimo) working on the desperately-needed blood substitute. Until then, they continue to milk captured humans, attached to rigs to steadily drain the blood and keeping them barely alive.

On the other hand, you have the remaining humans working for survival as exemplified by Audrey (Claudia Karvan) and Elvis (Willem Dafoe), who has somehow been cured of the disease. Audrey reaches out to Edward to enlist his support in working on a massive cure to save vampires and humans alike. Of course, not everyone endorses this sort of cooperation.

Much of the dramatic tension is seen through the relationship between Edward and his soldier brother vampire Frankie (Michael Dorman). While Edward is trying to help, all Frankie has it a hatred for humans and close-minded attitude despite the growing crisis.

The movie’s strength is in how society has changed and yet remained startlingly familiar as humans ceded society to the vampires. People still buy their blood-laced coffee, board the subway and go to work in their suits. Cars can switch to daylight mode, sealing off the windows with three video monitors showing the traffic and geography outside.

What is missing from the worldbuilding is any sense of what the rest of the world is experiencing and how other countries are handling the panic. No geopoltiics are raised at all which is odd considering the Australian pedigree of the production crew.

While the society is interesting, the characters are flat, dour, humorless people. The film has one tone and never varies so you have no highs and lows. You feel nothing for any of them, human or vampire, because the writing gives them no dimension. As forces move towards one another, stemming public riots or undermining the humans’ efforts to cure the disease, you see a lot of sound and fury and fangs and blood and you feel nothing. The all-too-obvious tension between brothers and romance between Edward and Audrey fails to engage the viewer. Worse, the horror things Charles inflicts on his daughter Alison should be an emotional highlight but is dull and uninteresting.

The movie is supplemented with 1:24 Making of… feature showing the development of the project from the 2004 script to the 2007 production. Some of the best parts are showing us the work from New Zealand’s Weta Workshop, which created the creature effects. Interestingly, the film sat on the shelf until it began screening around the world in 2009, ending with the American release. You also get a Poster Art Gallery, trailer and nothing else.

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