YMMV / The Illusionist (2006)

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Depending on how you see Eisenheim after he frames the prince for murder, he's either a Designated Hero or a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• Designated Hero: Eisenheim can come off as rather selfish in the way he schemes to find happiness for himself and Sophie, including faking Sophie's death and framing the Crown Prince for murder, disregarding any regional instability resulting from his actions.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Some people view Leopold too sympathetically. Even if he was only framed for killing Sophie, he had a reputation as an abuser, which we see firsthand, is rumoured to have murdered at least one woman already, and is generally petty and narcissistic. Not to mention the little matter of him plotting to usurp his own father's throne, for some reason viewers take his comment about trying to keep "the mongrels" at bay even though every action of his up to that point would indicate he'd be terrible with that kind of power.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Prague doubling as Vienna is incredibly funny because the real life Crown Prince Rudolf, upon whom Leopold was very loosely based, really did spend a lot of his life in Prague. ^note The Rudolfinum in Prague was named after and opened by him.
  • Sophie the character shares a name with Rudolf's paternal grandmother, Princess Sophie of Bavaria, and his oldest sister ^note who died as a toddler Archduchess Sophie of Austria.
  • In the realm of Black Comedy, but Rudolf's nephew, Prince Leopold Clement, was murdered by his mistress for breaking up with her. The incident was compared to Rudolf's death at Mayerling a few decades earlier.
• Love to Hate: Rufus Sewell makes Leopold an utterly despicable bastard that viewers love most of the scenes he's in.
• Magnificent Bastard: Eduard Abramovich grew up a peasant boy enthralled with magic and in love with the Duchess Sophie von Teschen until they were forced apart due to their class differences. Becoming the magician "Eisenheim the Illusionist", he meets Sophie again as an adult, and learns she is betrothed to the abusive Crown Prince Leopold. Enacting a scheme to fake her death and have her escape to the countryside, Eisenheim begins planting evidence implicating Leopold for murder while swiftly outplaying the police, eventually leaving Leopold unable to prove his innocence and killing himself to avoid shame, Eisenheim makes off to live happily with Sophie.
• Narm: The ridiculously goofy grin that appears on Uhl's face once The Reveal happens in the train station, especially since given the context of the scene he should be livid. May count as Narm Charm since it's rather Heartwarming that he's so delighted the lovers got away.
• Retroactive Recognition: That's Aaron Johnson as young Eisenheim and Eleanor Tomlinson as young Sophie in the flashbacks.
• She Really Can Act: Jessica Biel's casting was met with a lot of raised eyebrows, all of which were forgotten as soon as people saw the film. These days, it is praised as one of her best roles.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The movie tries to make Uhl more sympathetic, as a police chief who is powerless to stop Leopold from committing his crimes. However he still meddles in Sophie's life, spying on her and reporting her whereabouts to Leopold when he has no need to. He also has no problem finding a scapegoat for Sophie's apparent death, and it's implied he covered up Leopold's other crimes despite being fully aware of them. He does not even bring Leopold to justice as the prince kills himself before Uhl can do anything.
• The Un-Twist: Quite a few viewers had guessed that Sophie was not really dead, given that she's not seen being murdered.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: The recurring motif of the butterfly — secrecy, a double life, rebirth, a new life... nicely handled.

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