The Prestige (B+)
On the surface, Christopher Nolan's The Prestige is a solid thriller about two 19th century magicians and how their escalating rivalry turns tragic. The film title itself refers to the third 'act' of a magic trick. (First, there's the pledge, where the magician sets up the audience that he will saw a woman in half. Then there's the turn, where he seems to saw the woman in half. And finally, there's the prestige, where the woman comes out of the box unharmed.) In stage magic, the secret to your success is in how effectively you can misdirect an audience.
Which is exactly what Nolan has done, to the point where most of the professional critics who's reviewed this movie seem to miss its point entirely. The movie is not about what you think it is. Why is it so easy for us to figure out both Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden's (Christian Bale) secrets to their respective 'disappearing man' tricks so soon in the movie? (Remember the very first scene of the film.) Notice how certain motifs reappear through the film. (The Chinese magician who lives 24-7 as a cripple, the disappearing bird cage trick where the first bird dies in the collapsing cage) Look at this exchange between Nikola Tesla (a great bit by David Bowie, by the way...) and Angier. Angier's trying to convince Tesla to build him a machine that will trump Borden's act...
Nikola Tesla: Mr. Angier, have you considered the cost of such a machine?
Robert Angier: Price is not an object.
Nikola Tesla: Perhaps not, but have you considered the cost?
Robert Angier: I'm not sure I follow.
Nikola Tesla: Go home. Forget this thing. I can recognize an obsession, no good will come of it.
Robert Angier: Why, haven't good come of your obsessions?
Nikola Tesla: Well at first. But I followed them too long. I'm their slave..and one day they'll choose to destroy me.
Robert Angier: If you understand an obsession then you know you won't change my mind.
The price both men pay for their obsession is terrible, indeed, and it destroys one of them in ways he couldn't begin to anticipate. Remember this exchange between Cutter, (Michael Caine, in another fine bit of casting) and Angier...
Cutter: Remember when I told you about the drowning sailor?
Robert Angier: Yes, he said it was like going home.
Cutter: I lied. He said it was agony.
The other man is destroyed too, if you stop to think about it. When you figure out the movie, the real point's going to stay with you for quite a while. Or as Angier puts it...
Alfred Borden: You went half way around the world..you spent a fortune.. you did terrible things...really terrible things Robert, and all for nothing.
Robert Angier: For nothing?
Alfred Borden: Yeah.
Robert Angier: You never understood, why we did this. The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you..then you got to see something really special.. you really don't know?..it was..it was the look on their faces..
On the surface, Christopher Nolan's The Prestige is a solid thriller about two 19th century magicians and how their escalating rivalry turns tragic. The film title itself refers to the third 'act' of a magic trick. (First, there's the pledge, where the magician sets up the audience that he will saw a woman in half. Then there's the turn, where he seems to saw the woman in half. And finally, there's the prestige, where the woman comes out of the box unharmed.) In stage magic, the secret to your success is in how effectively you can misdirect an audience.
Which is exactly what Nolan has done, to the point where most of the professional critics who's reviewed this movie seem to miss its point entirely. The movie is not about what you think it is. Why is it so easy for us to figure out both Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden's (Christian Bale) secrets to their respective 'disappearing man' tricks so soon in the movie? (Remember the very first scene of the film.) Notice how certain motifs reappear through the film. (The Chinese magician who lives 24-7 as a cripple, the disappearing bird cage trick where the first bird dies in the collapsing cage) Look at this exchange between Nikola Tesla (a great bit by David Bowie, by the way...) and Angier. Angier's trying to convince Tesla to build him a machine that will trump Borden's act...
Nikola Tesla: Mr. Angier, have you considered the cost of such a machine?
Robert Angier: Price is not an object.
Nikola Tesla: Perhaps not, but have you considered the cost?
Robert Angier: I'm not sure I follow.
Nikola Tesla: Go home. Forget this thing. I can recognize an obsession, no good will come of it.
Robert Angier: Why, haven't good come of your obsessions?
Nikola Tesla: Well at first. But I followed them too long. I'm their slave..and one day they'll choose to destroy me.
Robert Angier: If you understand an obsession then you know you won't change my mind.
The price both men pay for their obsession is terrible, indeed, and it destroys one of them in ways he couldn't begin to anticipate. Remember this exchange between Cutter, (Michael Caine, in another fine bit of casting) and Angier...
Cutter: Remember when I told you about the drowning sailor?
Robert Angier: Yes, he said it was like going home.
Cutter: I lied. He said it was agony.
The other man is destroyed too, if you stop to think about it. When you figure out the movie, the real point's going to stay with you for quite a while. Or as Angier puts it...
Alfred Borden: You went half way around the world..you spent a fortune.. you did terrible things...really terrible things Robert, and all for nothing.
Robert Angier: For nothing?
Alfred Borden: Yeah.
Robert Angier: You never understood, why we did this. The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you..then you got to see something really special.. you really don't know?..it was..it was the look on their faces..
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