The Illusionist (2006)
When Eisenheim (Ed Norton) was young, he fell in love with a duchess well above his social class. After years traveling the world perfecting his craft as a magician, he returns to Vienna to pursue the same duchess (Jessica Biel), who’s now engaged to the Crown Prince Leopold. The film becomes a battle of wills between the cruel, conniving Prince and the resourceful magician.
I haven’t seen anything to suggest Biel is capable of doing more than looking pretty and this film didn’t change my opinion.
I love Paul Giamatti, but even he can’t elevate the source material as Chief Inspector Uhl, Leopold’s henchman.
This period piece about magicians in the nineteenth century grounds itself in reality by using elements of the actual Mayerling Incident, but can’t decide if it’s a magical realist film or a historical drama and straddles the line until the audience realizes it doesn’t care.
Because they both feature nineteenth century magicians, this film is often unfavorably compared to The Prestige (2006), an inventive movie which plays with expectations and offers real surprises. Sadly, this film somehow siphons all the magical fun out of a film about magicians.
A Prophet (2009)
Illiterate teenager Malik El Djebena is arrested for attacking police officers and sentenced to six years in prison.
The prison is divided in two factions along roughly ethnic lines: Muslims and Corsicans. Despite his Muslim faith, Malik is wooed by the Corsicans to assassinate witnesses and intimidate other prisoners.
This French film belongs to a long line of films about petty criminals slowly becoming masterminds including The Godfather (1972), Scarface (1983), Goodfellas (1990), and Breaking Bad.
But Malik lacks the charisma of Don Corleone or Henry Hill, and I never cared if he survived or rose above his circumstances. The film raises interesting and valid questions about identity, faith, and the relationship between race and organized crime, but the pacing is too slow and the characters are not very interesting.