Giamatti saves 'Illusionist'

A cinematic parlor trick wrapped in fine linens and scented in the most exquisite fragrances, "Illusionist" plays more like a chick-flick "Usual Suspects." (Yeah, I used that "chick-flick" term again. Send me nasty e-mail and see if I care.) It's also the sort of piffling, period-piece date movie that young audiences can watch without worrying if it's going to make their heads hurt. Basically, it's a costume drama for "Laguna Beach" fans.

We have Edward Norton as Eisenheim, an awe-inspiring magician who blows into turn-of-the-century Vienna and wows the people with his astonishing bag of tricks. While he wins the love and respect of the crowd, he does inspire the odd hater.

The most prominent is the power-mad and obviously jealous Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell, foaming at the mouth), who consistently tries -- and fails -- to debunk Eisenheim's trickery. Eisenheim rouses the prince's ire intensely after he employs the prince's betrothed, who happens to be Eisenheim's childhood love (Jessica Biel, agonizingly trying to prove she's more than Maxim material), in a stage trick that rekindles their long-lost affair.

While "Illusionist" may be gorgeous and romantic and all that lovey-dovey stuff, it rarely amazes. Writer-director Neil Burger ("Interview with the Assassin") keeps everything fancy as he translates Steven Millhauser's "Eisenheim the Illusionist" short story to the big screen. But the murder-mystery plot, which has Eisenheim publicly summoning spirits to get to the truth, grows increasingly, needlessly hollow. Besides, most of it is just red-herring fodder for the Big Twist Ending, a deliberately preposterous rope-a-dope that's supposed to make you feel overjoyed that you've been duped. But, by then, you may not care.

"Illusionist" does manage to get away with murder, figuratively and literally, thanks to the movie's true marvel: Paul Giamatti.

He is Chief Inspector Uhl, a ladder-climbing law enforcer ordered by Leopold to investigate Eisenheim, no matter that Uhl kinda has a man-crush on the magician. Giamatti once again puts his average-joe charisma to work playing a man who isn't as spineless as he seems. While Norton mopes around like a debonair flim-flam man, fueled by love and his own brilliance, Giamatti is sharp and alert, injecting the movie with the engaging wittiness it would've been so dull without. An inadvertently hilarious moment comes when Eisenheim asks Uhl if he's completely corrupt and Uhl responds, almost defiantly, "No, not completely, no!"

"The Illusionist" may be classy, passionate celluloid chicanery, but it's Giamatti who keeps things dazzling.