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‘The Prestige’ Ends Up As A Cinematic Parlor Trick
BY MAGGIE SCOTT
As with a good relationship, having an exciting, fulfilling experience with a magic act takes an engaged mind. And, fully enjoying a movie takes an engaged mind.
The trouble with The Prestige is that it takes too much mind to satisfyingly follow what ultimately is a cinematic parlor trick by director Christopher Nolan and his brother/co-screenwriter Jonathan Nolan.
The first few words of the film ask, “Are you watching closely?” But the mind becomes exhausted closely watching the Nolans’ sleight of hand. Not just full of “now you see it, now you don’t” moments, this story is full of “now you get it, now you don’t” as you struggle to mentally make the correct moves in the maze of plot turns and point-of-view shifts.
Magicians Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) discover that their shared passion for prestidigitation transcends a near blood feud that develops after the death of Robert’s wife.
Alfred used a different knot to tie her hands, and she drowned in the magicians’ water tank. Alfred claims he can’t remember changing the knot. Robert is sure Alfred killed his wife, but his idea of justice is to decisively surpass Alfred in magic skills (“he stole my life, I’ll steal his trick”).
Over the years, the men’s paths cross as they compete for the adulation of Victorian London’s spectacle-hungry people. Robert’s showmanship is continually upstaged by the superior illusions of Alfred. Robert is the better magician, but Alfred has the better tricks, especially something called the “transporting man.” Robert’s obsession with besting Alfred takes him to an innovative genius named Tesla (David Bowie) who, some claim, “can really do what magicians pretend to do.”
And, there is a machine, Robert believes, that Tesla has created, that can help him achieve that power; power that will vanquish Alfred once and for all. Alfred’s defeat will involve making people believe that Robert has been murdered. And, it will involve threatening to take something Alfred values almost as much as his magic—his daughter.
As amazing scientific discoveries and their applications begin to supplant the hold illusionists have over their audiences, Robert realizes that he will have to use reality to achieve his ultimate triumph over Alfred. Nolans’ adaptation of the Christopher Priest novel effectively keeps the illusive transformations of the rivals front and center, never upstaged by the magic.
This Touchstone Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures release is rated PG-13 for violence and disturbing images.
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