Jamie passion and passionfruit!

I expected more of this.  Sure, it has some great magic effects (apparently not computer enhanced) and the story is acceptable enough but there was something so very BBC about it, something that is correct but does not transcend anything much.  Neil Burger is the director and screenwriter and it may be that he doesn’t want to do anything too grand with the staging of the movie so that in the end it becomes a sort of pedestrian romance disputed between a devious crown prince and an equally deceptive magician.  Edward Norton is fine as the magician with an air of mystery.  Rufus Sewell is also ok as Leopold the prince.  Jessica Biel doesn’t really do much as the source of the dispute and it is really Paul Giamatti, the police inspector who is hell-bent on discovering the tricks as well as sorting out some of the ‘crimes’ committed in the film, who steals the show in the acting category.  A decent enough piece of entertainment, thats all.

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