The Prestige

‘Obsession is a young man’s game.’- John Cutter

The Christopher Nolan directed 2006 film based on Christopher Priest’s novel does well to present the power of the illusion and question if we really want it.

The film begins at the performance of ‘The Great Danton’ (Hugh Jackman) as he performs his last and most famous trick ‘The Transported Man’. His nemesis Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) goes back stage to see how he completes the trick and discovers Angier drowning in a tank of water. Angier’s mentor and engineer John Cutter (Michael Caine) sees this and assumes Borden caused it and gets him arrested. Later at Borden’s murder trial is this evidence that see him put in prison.

Nolan makes good use of non –linear structure in the film which kept my attention as well as made me constantly wonder who I was supporting. At first, I longed for Borden to be released from prison but then became engrossed in Angier’s obsessive journey to America. Plus the tumultuous journey’s of both their professional and personal lives show the men to have in common than they would want despite their contrasting magician styles. The inclusion of another smaller rivalry between Nicola Tesla and Thomas Edison let me know how little I know about both history and physics but shows that there are stylistic clashes across many occupations.

The film also has a lot of star power as it only came to my attention because Sky was celebrating Scarlett Johansson’s birthday. Unlike most films nowadays they seem to have been casted for the acting more so than the status. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman’s brutal back and forth throughout leave you wondering who the good guy is as they both seek revenge on the other and ultimately come out as the better magician. The acting of Johansson is not to be overlooked. Her character Olivia Wenscombe played the assistant and lover to both Angier and Borden highlighting again that the two characters were more like than they would accept.

It’s the ending of the film that I’m not quite sure about. Nolan takes a new direction at the very end when everything appears to have been settled. But the change seemed too unrealistic to me, even for a film about magicians. However, much like the rest of the film it is unclear who really gains the upper hand with this ending leaving the question of who’s the better magician undecided. in the end, though it doesn’t take away from the film and adds it to the list of the many films that I have watched on a whim and have been more than happy with.