The Illusionist (2006)

Director: Neil Burger

First, I have to admit that I watched this on a trans-Atlantic flight from Rome to Atlanta. Delta couldn’t get their sound system working correctly, so I think I only heard about 60% of the words spoken in the film. That being said, I got most everything, but there is a chance that I missed something while I was trying to savour my three cheese ravioli and salad with “seasonal greens” (iceberg lettuce).

The film is about an illusionist named Eisenheim (Edward Norton) who is at the top of his game. As he becomes more renowned his show gets visited by the Crown Prince in Vienna. The crown prince just happens to be engaged to a woman whom Esienheim was forcibly separated from when they were young due to his class. Thus the movie’s tension is that Esenhiem’s quest to regain the girl and to challenge the Crown Prince.

This is what I gathered over the children that were crying in front of me:

1. Eisenheim when young is told that he will no longer be able to see Sophie (Jessica Biel). If continues to do so his family will be arrested.

2. Eisenheim’s illusions seem to break the laws of nature so before the Crown Prince comes the police are charged with trying to expose them as a fraud.

3. There is a great scene where Eisenheim challenges the Crown Prince’s ability to rule with a sword trick. Only the person who can lift the sword is strong enough to be a ruler (a la the sword in the stone of Arthurian legend), but the prince can not lift the sword until Eisenheim releases it.

4. There is police involvement throughout the film as Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) is charged with exposing the Eisenheim and upholding the law. He eventually attempts to arrest Eisenheim on charges of disturbing public order, threats against the emperor, and charlatanism (I’d like to revive this crime . . . for fun mostly). In the end though he is forced to assert the law over the crown prince (who would have one believe he is above the law).

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The Core (2003)

Director: Jon Amiel
This horrible little action adventure film has the United States creating a weapon that stops the core of the Earth from spinning. This is going to lead to the end of the world because . . . well because that is what happens when the center of the earth stops spinning. As a solution to this pesky problem, the US government enlists a team of scientists and geologists to build a craft that can go to the center of the earth and set off nuclear explosions to get the core going again (I know it sounds like a bad Jules Verne novel).

These are the legal quandries:

1. At the beginning a Space Shuttle crashes into downtown Los Angeles. This damage isn’t covered by the Liability Convention. Just what sort of insurance is NASA toting?

2. The United States developed the weapon on the grounds of Mutually Assured Destruction. Seems to fit.

3. The guys are cruising around in a ship underground. Now, granting that the ship is made out of a material called unobtainium that ain’t remotely real, just how far down does national soveriegnty go.

4. The United States saves the world, but also destroyed part of it first. How much state responsibility is gonna apply to the destruction of Rome?

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