The Illusionist (2006)

Director Neil Burger's screen adaptation of Steven Millhauser's short story 'Eisenheim the Illusionist'. Eisenheim (Edward Norton) is a magician in early 1900's Vienna, who falls in love with a woman well above his social standing. When she becomes engaged to a Crown Prince, Eisenheim uses his powers to free her and undermine the stability of the royal house of Vienna. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Although the story is fictional, some of the details are based on the life of Austrian Crown Prince Rudolf, only son of Emperor Framz Josef. The painting of the emperor which Eisenheim creates is an actual portrait of Franz Josef. The bodies of Rudolf and his mistress, the Baroness Mary Vetsera, were found at his hunting lodge Mayerling on January 30, 1889 in what is now known as the "Mayerling Incident". This was initially covered up by the Imperial Family, creating controversy and mystery. When Prince Leopold is approached by Inspector Uhl, while hunting, to inform him of Eisenheim and Sophie's meetings, the Prince asks what they were seen doing together. The line about if they were seen "fornicating" was originally filmed as him saying "f***ing" instead. It was later dubbed over in order to avoid an R-Rating in compliance with the MPAA's policy that the f-word not be used in reference to intercourse in a PG-13 film. You can however still see the Prince mouth out the original line.

Another of the "over the North Atlantic on a British Airways" films. Edward Norton is a very good actor and so is Paul Giamonti and it was a good film, but not great. Maybe I was tired by then, 20 hours into a 26 hour travel experience, and the third movie I had seen on the flight after Pirates of the Caribean: Dead Man's Chest and The Queen. It just seemed slow and a little hard to accept that the magnificent illusions were something that they could have done in the time period of the movie. The illusions would be hard to accept today if seen on a stage and not in a movie with CGI, which they obviously were. It would have been much better if they could have used real illusions. So basically if you don't get lost in the story, you won't believe it. Jessica Biel is pretty good looking though and it was a good movie, just not great.