The most difficult aspect of making a film about a magician is finding the right actor to play the magician.

The lead is required to play another actor in a way. A magician is an actor after all, but not just an actor.

When we watch a magic show, we know what we’re seeing isn’t real. When the magician puts a handkerchief in his hat and pulls out a rabbit, we know the handkerchief didn’t actually turn into a rabbit. It’s a trick. The key for the magician is to somehow make the audience think that maybe it wasn’t just a trick. Maybe, just maybe, this magician is capable of magic.

In Edward Norton, the director Neil Burger found just the right actor to play a mysterious magician.

Norton stars as Eisenheim, The Illusionist. As a boy, he had a chance encounter with a traveling magician and immediately was inspired to learn everything he could about magic. As a teenager, he met and fell in love with Sophie, an aristrocrat. The two have to meet in secret because she is not to be seen with a poor boy — a son of a carpenter. Eventually they are found and she is taken away, only to become the fiance of the Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) 15 years later, while Norton’s character has become a famous magician.

At one of his shows, the Prince arrives and offers to allow Sophie to participate in one of the magician’s tricks. The two recognize each other; She still wears a locket Eisenheim gave her years before. They realize they’re still in love but cannot be together because she is promised to Leopold.

What makes matters worse is that Leopold is both ruthlessly ambitious and insanely jealous. He feels threatened by Eisenheim’s cult following. His tricks and illusions are so incredible, audiences begin to believe he is more than just a magician — he might be a sorcerer. Leopold sets out to destroy Eisenheim’s reputation and employs Chief Inspector Uhl, played by Paul Giamatti, to uncover the illusionist’s secrets.

Giamatti is excellent in a subdued role. The audience immediately sympathizes with his dilemna. Uhl, who used to practice magic as a hobby, is fascinated by Eisenheim. They meet and get along almost immediately. He is torn between his duty to his prince and his natural instincts. Uhl becomes the main character of the film and we see the plot unfold through his perspective.

The villain is Prince Leopold, who at first glance appears to be the prototypical arrogant aristocrat, complete with a desire to overthrow his father’s government and a propensity to physically abuse women. But with a closer look you realize there may be another side to this character, and Sewell plays him as a man you both disdain and pity.

The key performance, however, is Norton’s. Expect some award consideration here. One look at him as Eisenheim can reveal hatred, love, jealousy and cunning. Norton has already provided us with so many memorable characters in his young career and this one should be ranked with the best of them. On stage, Eisenheim is supremely confident in his talent. Watching him, you feel like he is truly capable of anything. At the same time, he is a polite, humble and respectful person who is even willing to share his secrets. But he always has a gleam in his eye that hints he is nowhere near revealing his hand.

Burger directs the film in a similar fashion, showing just enough to keep the viewer’s attention, but at the same time winking at the audience, letting them know he has plenty more tricks up his sleeve. He wants the audience to think, to be an active participant.

He relies on us believing in the power of “The Illusionist.”

Paul Giuntoli is a film critic for the Northern Star.