A Three-Layered Plot, A Journey of Reconciliation
Actor/director Michael Goorjian takes his audience on a winding journey of reconciliation and reunion in Illusion. Kirk Douglas plays legendary film maker Donald Baines, who weighs his cinematic accomplishments against his estranged son Christopher’s (Goorjian) heartfelt quest to pursue his true love.
Donald lies dying alone in his private screening room, watching the films he has devoted his life to creating and finding that his theatrical accomplishments seem hollow beside the failed relationship with his illegitimate son, whom he has never acknowledged.
Late one night Donald is awakened by the ghostly image of Stan, a favorite editor who has been dead more than 35 years. Suddenly Donald finds his deathbed transported to an old movie house, where Stan shows him three short film clips, each representing a different period of Christopher’s life.
The first offers the older Baines a glimpse of Christopher’s awkward first teenage
“A film is like a body: it has to have a brain and shape, but most of all it has to have heart.”
om afar, and chances it all for an opportunity to spend time with her. But the nagging voice of the father he never knew tells him he’s not worthy. Clip two transports the audience into a brooding Christopher’s 20s, when he finds himself face to face with his lost love in a chance meeting. His life takes a brutal twist as they’re torn apart again.
In the final clip, an older Christopher, weary from a life of disappointment and angry at his own sense of failure and abandonment, seems poised to make a life-destroying decision that only Donald can prevent. But Donald must find the courage to intervene and become part of his son’s life.
The Making of a Successful Life
and a More Meaningful Film
Illusion builds its energy without falling prey to the clichés and extravagances that characterize so many Hollywood productions — making the winding plot doubly suspenseful. The nuance behind the movie’s three core segments, written and filmed in distinctly different styles, creates a layered plot and an almost palpable sense of passing time.
The first scene sets up the movie’s premise: a life of successes is not necessarily a successful life. The film is loosely based on Pierre Corneille’s 17th-century play L’Illusion Comique, which tells the story of an old man who seeks out a magician to help him find his estranged son.
In Illusion, first-time director Goorjian lets Donald Baines’ long-dead editor, Stan (Ron Marasco), act as the magician, offering Donald glimpses of his son’s life through old “movie clips” that appear in a dream.
Goorjian and cinematographer Robert Humphreys designed each “clip” to elicit the complexities of emotion that dominate the various stages of a young man’s life. The first clip, of a teenage Christopher, is shot using old lenses for a nostalgic feel. Goorjian says his intent was to depict the embarrassment, awkwardness and earnestness of youthful love. Ensuing clips underscore Christopher’s maturation. The 20-something segment is dark, moody and lush; the 30-something segment is simple and honest, shot in a naturalistic style that acknowledges the beauty of the locations.
Goorjian’s experience brings order to what might otherwise be a chaotic montage. A six-year veteran of the hit television series Party of Five and numerous movies including SLC Punk, Hard Rain and the Oscar-nominated Leaving Las Vegas, Goorjian knows his way around Hollywood. His performance as a young autistic boy in the television movie David’s Mother, starring opposite Kirstie Alley, won him the 1994 Emmy for Best Supporting Actor. He has an insider’s sense of what works — and what compels an audience.
Illusion is part of a growing “Movies that Matter” genre of films that seek a deeper connection to their audiences, a genre that includes a recent crop like What the Bleep Do We Know!?, The Real Dirt on Farmer John, The Celestine Prophecy, The Alchemist and Peaceful Warrior. It’s a new paradigm for Hollywood. “Traditionally, there have been two stereotypes,” Goorjian says. “Artistic films have been gritty, dirty and hard; and emotional films are sappy — Disney makes ‘em.”
But Goorjian sees a demand for uplifting films that aren’t afraid to explore positive messages. And he recognizes that big studios can’t, or won’t, produce them. “For a big studio to make money they have to be sure everyone will go see their film,” he says. “That’s why there’s a generic quality to what comes out these days.”
While he knew he wanted to create something different with Illusion, Goorjian was wary of drama for its own sake. “As an actor I’ve been involved in projects that are just products,” he says. From the start, it’s clear that Illusion aspires to be better: Douglas’ character, Donald, tells his interviewer, “a film is like a body: it has to have a brain and shape, but most of all it has to have heart.”
Indeed, the film’s characters confront their demons without employing predictable solutions — a fact that’s as heartening for the viewer as it must have been for the writers. But Goorjian is quick to point out that Illusion doesn’t preach. “Message-based movies don’t always work,” he says. “More than anything I wanted to tell a good story, but I also wanted to make a movie where it was important what was being said. I cared about that.”
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May 10, 2007 6:17:20 PM
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