Edward Norton. Paul Giamatti. Two great tastes that taste great together? Well, that may be the case, but... As for "The Illusionist" (if I may extend the metaphor), it's an okay meal, like the fast food you deem "good fast food": it does the job but doesn't leave you completely satisfied.

Written for the screen and directed by Neil Burger (adapted from a short story by Steven Millhauser), "The Illusionist" takes place in early 1900s Vienna, where the magician Eisenheim (Edward Norton) dazzles audiences with his amazing tricks. When Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) catches Eisenheim's act, he is both pleased and perplexed; he himself is something of a magic buff and wants to know precisely how he has been tricked. Uhl works for and caters to Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell), whom Uhl brings to Eisenheim's next show. Sitting beside Leopold is Sophie (Jessica Biel), his bride-to-be in an arranged marriage. We get a sense of Leopold's character when, hearing Eisenheim call for a volunteer to be sliced and diced, Leopold offers up Sophie. When Sophie walks onto the stage, Eisenheim realizes that she is the same Sophie he loved as a young boy. Thus, the stage is set, so to speak, for Eisenheim and Sophie's reunion and quest to be together, with Leopold being the complication.

The film has an "A1 --> B --> A1 --> A2" design, in that it begins with a present scene (A1), then delves into the past and what led up to the present (B), then returns to the present and moves on to the next scenes and the story's conclusion (A2). With this design, the film is able to present us first with a problem: Eisenheim is on stage, about to be arrested by Uhl and his officers. Next we go to the past (the main chunk of the film), where we eventually learn why Eisenheim is in hot water with Uhl. Finally, in the third act, we find out whether or not he will escape arrest.

He does, of course--because all the while, what we've been watching has been a master plan, a complex con, a grand illusion. And so, Eisenheim fools not only his audiences, but also the coppers, the crown prince--and us, the viewers. Well...not exactly. The film seeks to fool us with its big endgame illusion, but we can see it coming from the moment Sophie "dies." That's right, Biel's character (the love interest) is supposedly killed off in the second act. That just ain't gonna happen in this kind of movie. People want their Biel to prevail in the end. Like in "Stealth." Erm, no...

Anyhow, Sophie does prevail. In the end, we see her in a far-off country landscape, a scene that echoes the end scene in "From Hell." There, Inspector Abberline (Johnny Depp), in his final opium vision, sees Mary Kelly (Heather Graham) at peace outside a cottage by the sea, far removed from those grimy, fear-laden London streets. But whereas Abberline dies, Eisenheim lives on. He rendezvouses with Sophie in that country landscape, and they are together at last.

The way they pull it off is rather weak, though. You may be reminded, as I was, of the "now we're gonna explain everything in a tidy montage" scene from "The Usual Suspects," set off when the Chazz Palminteri character (come on, who cares to remember his name?), staring at the bulletin board, puts two and two together and drops his coffee cup. Same thing happens here, only Uhl doesn't drop his coffee cup. And the montage, rather than being a cool, "aha" moment, as it is in "Suspects," feels like a cheap, "deus ex machina" moment here.

All in all, Giamatti does a fine, fine job, as usual, Norton looks sleepy, and Biel gives a satisfactorily restrained performance (I had hoped for that, actually, as opposed to her being mere lips and boobs). Sewell, too, does a decent job as the baddie, his stock character of late (and he's been making the royalty rounds: the crown prince here, Lord Marke in "Tristan and Isolde," and Count Adhemar of Anjou in "A Knight's Tale"). The problem lies in the presentation of the story, I feel. But "The Illusionist" is Neil Burger's first big-time feature (his only other film being "Interview with the Assassin"), and that's quite a cast to start out with. So, if you haven't already seen this movie in the theater, wait to NetFlix it. And in the meantime, get ready for what I predict to be a far superior "magician" film: Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige," in theaters this October.