Christopher Nolan, easily one of the best directors working today, likes
to play with his audience’s perception. In “Memento” the audience follows a
character whose memory should never be trusted as it vanishes after 10 minutes.
In “Inception” the characters navigate through a world that is an illusion
within an illusion within another illusion. Even Batman in his Dark Knight
trilogy has a flair for the theatrics. Hence it makes perfect sense for Nolan
to have made “The Prestige” (2006) a movie about feuding magicians. In a film
where two rivals try to outwit each other with the world’s best magic trick,
don’t be surprised if the ending has fooled you.
Released one year after “Batman Begins” and two years before “The Dark
Knight,” “The Prestige” showed Nolan had more than one trick up his sleeve. I
saw it during my first year at the University of Sherbrooke while spending one
of my holidays with my mom in Quebec City. You know you have a good movie when
audience members are discussing the plot long after the credits are rolling and
in the case of “The Prestige” my mom had a few questions. I won’t lie, it does
make me feel slightly cleverer when I can offer an explanation for a movie’s
plot and other people are lost. However with Nolan’s tale magic you have to pay
close attention because like an actual magician, the director leaves a few
misdirects along the way.
Set in late 19th century London, the story follows the
rivalry between magicians Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian
Bale). Early on we see the rivalry does not end well, as Borden is on trial for
the murder of Angier. Flashback to a time when they were learning their trade
under Milton the Magician (real-life stage magician Ricky Jay) and engineer
John Cutter (Michael Cain). Along with Angier’s wife Julia (Piper Perabo) they
were all friends, until a stage accident causes Julia’s death onstage. Blaming
Borden for the accident, Angier goes his separate way, taking Cutter with him.
With his new assistant Olivia (Scarlett Johansson) Angier becomes The
Great Danton, while Borden, with a mysterious assistant of his own, becomes The
Professor. Learning that Borden has dared to find a wife (Rebecca Hall), Angier
escalates their professional rivalry into a full-scale war. As they sabotage
each other’s tricks, fingers are shot and limbs are broken as the audience
watches in horror.
When Borden begins performing a new trick called The Transported Man, in
which he seemingly teleports from one end of the stage to the other, Angier
becomes obsessed with cracking its secret. Using Olivia as a spy, he obtains a
clue that sends him to America and to the home of Nikola Tesla (David Bowie,
appropriately charismatic), one of the most influential inventors of the 19th
century.
This is where the movie takes a left turn into science fiction territory.
Until meeting Tesla, all of the tricks used by the two rivals had a logical
explanation, yet Tesla and his assistant Mr. Alley (Andy Serkis) show Angier a
machine so incredible that it would belong in the 24th century, not
the 19th. It allows Angier to perform an even more amazing version
of The Transported Man, yet the amazing thing is that Borden never made use of
science fiction in his trick.
Could it be real magic? That question is raised a few times throughout
the film, but as with movie magic, it is all smoke and mirrors. Angier believes
Borden leaves fake clues to misdirect Olivia when she is spying on him, which
is what Nolan is doing throughout the movie. There are clues, especially in
Bale’s performance and in his physical appearance in certain key scenes in the
movie.
Look closely and you might guess Nolan’s big reveal before the curtain
falls. The use of science fiction is a bit of a cheat, but since Angier is the
only one using Tesla’s machine, perhaps Nolan’s message is that true magicians
rely on practical effects, not science. Within this tragic tale of feuding
illusionists, I believe there is an ode to movie engineers.
Comments
Post a Comment