Those who have considered the question of whether magicians or mimes are a more regrettable subspecies of humanity will have much to ponder in “The Illusionist,” a bit of animated French mime about a magician.
Sylvain Chomet (“The Triplets of Belleville”) adapted an unproduced script by Jacques Tati, the French filmmaker. Tati is deceased, and so is this film, in which the title character is a genteel, elderly touring magician whose pathetic act commonly draws crowds in the single digits.
Leaving Paris for an island in Scotland, he enjoys a little more success at a pub, where he bestows touching acts of kindness on a chambermaid. She starts following him around, spending most of the movie with him at an Edinburgh boardinghouse for worn-out circus people.
The movie is almost entirely wordless — much of what dialogue there is comes in grunts and grumbles reminiscent of the way adults speak in Charlie Brown cartoons — meaning lots of dreary mimed gags. A glum clown who has makeup on his face, for instance, is forced to wash up by using a fake lapel flower that squirts water. A hotel clerk, who appears while sitting down to be of normal size, emerges from behind his desk, revealing himself to be a midget. Occasionally the magician’s pet rabbit bites someone.
Since this low-grade comedy doesn’t really even attempt to be funny, the purpose of the movie is to establish (or reinforce) a feeling of luxurious old-timey melancholy. This is nurtured by the minor-key piano tinklings on the soundtrack and the purposely rough hand-drawn animation, whose crudeness might be charming if it were accompanied by much of a story.
The illusionist always maintains his shabby dignity while what there is of his career crumbles to bits. Meanwhile, the chambermaid gradually grows prettier and more confident. The relationship between them isn’t romantic but isn’t really defined, either. Maybe he’s just too shy to make a move on her, or maybe he wants to allow her to slip away and develop on her own.
It doesn’t much seem to matter, as long as we take in the film’s undergraduate message that life is beautifully sad.