As a manipulator of the public's perception of reality, illusionist Eisenheim (Norton) makes Derren Brown look like Paul Daniels or David Blaine a poor man's Ali Bongo.

Calm and coldly efficient, his gasp-inducing setpieces - encouraging an orange tree to blossom in front of an incredulous audience - have the whiff of the supernatural about them.

However, his unruffled demeanour is disturbed when the companion of Austrian Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) is called to the stage to take part in an elaborate act of concealment.

She is Sophie von Teschen (Biel), the childhood sweetheart of the young Eisenheim and the first love who was torn from his arms because he came from humble peasant stock.

Shaken, he is stirred into resuming their dormant love affair in secret...a move that enrages her fiance, the cruel and devious Crown Prince, who recruits Viennese police chief Uhl (Giamatti) to keep tabs on the lovers.

When she announces she is leaving him, the fuming Leopold fatally stabs her in the neck and she is later discovered by a suspicious Eisenheim floating lifeless in a river.

Writer-director Neil Burger's adaptation of Steven Millhauser's short story is a triumph of low-key film-making, relying on a splendid cast and spare dialogue to chronicle a series of teasing events that are not always how they appear.

Norton delivers a quietly assured performance as Eisenheim, a consummate yet unflamboyant showman whose inner self can only be reached by the effervescent Sophie (a nicely understated performance from Biel).

However, it is Giammati's Uhl - a decent career copper fatally compromised by ambitions that can only be realised by unquestioning service of Leopold - where the movie's magic really lies.

His morally stricken character provides the core of a story that twists and turns against the rich background of fin-de-siecle Vienna (sublimely recreated on location in Prague).

Totally different in tone from The Prestige, this alchemic combination of love story and poltical intrigue is a difficult trick to pull off. Burger manages it with a flourish.

Tim Evans