Dueling magicians in London a century ago

Rating: 8/10 (19 April 2007)

The Prestige is a period piece fantasy made into something resembling reality. At its heart it relies on a device from science fiction, a machine that transports people and objects by replicating them. How such a device might work is beside the intent of the movie. And that's okay. Movie goers accept premises and then follow the action without any need to examine the premise further. However I think that director Christopher Nolan might have looked more closely at the consequences of his premise. Replicating objects with electricity (pretty far-fetched of course) and moving them some distance from the replicating point is quite a feat even in the imagination. But what to do with the replications? Nolan's solution: kill them off. In fact kill off the original and keep the replication.
Now if you are magician Robert Angier (Hugh Jackson) and you know that you are about to die, and in fact in a most unpleasant way by drowning, I think you might be a little hesitant to perform the trick, even though a replication of you will come to life and live on. Note that both the replication and the original Angier would want to live and prefer that the other be the one to die.
Nolan thought about this and that is why one is forced to die. Nolan probably would have himself preferred to keep the original and do away with the duplicate, but then the trick wouldn't work properly since the original would still be in place and not moved at all.
This is an old theme in science fiction and Nolan does not attempt to improve on it. And again that's okay. But another problem with the way the premise is handled is that, although surely Angier would want to go one up on his nemesis, fellow magician Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and dazzle the world with this amazing trick, he might have at some point just replicated some pound notes or some bullion. If Borden had gotten hold of the machine, maybe he could have replicated Scarlett Johansson so that he and Fallon could have one each for themselves. (And one for me would be nice as well.) Or he could have replicated his beloved daughter.
What I am pointing to is the irony in the way the machine was used as a vehicle for a magic trick. The trick as performed is so much less amazing than the real magic that could have been displayed, that of replicating enormously complex objects like human beings. Nobody in the film seems to realize this. This is perhaps the major--shall we say--plot cheesiness. Another, as pointed out elsewhere, is that the question Angier asks of Borden, "Which knot did you use?" The question is bogus as is his answer, "I don't know," since Julia was still tied and the knot could be seen. Also there is the question of what to do with all those bodies being created? We see them near the end of the film in the water boxes. Seems a bit of a stretch to make all those new boxes and just leave the bodies there. Somebody might call the bobbies, don't you think? For these reasons I am beginning to wonder if Nolan is getting a little careless or if he has been corrupted by success to the point where he no longer cares about logical consistency and artistic rigor. Perhaps we'll see in his next opus. However scheduled for release next year is The Dark Knight another Batman caper starring Christian Bale.
Putting all this aside, the movie is entertaining and thought provoking. Nolan's time-stirred delineation of the plot is done well and kept this viewer interested. I also liked the razor sharp psychological tension created between Borden and Angier as they compete against each other. And the many surprising plot twists and turns--something that Nolan does very well--were nice.
And the cast was excellent. Michael Caine who plays the old magician and front man Cutter was perfect, and the glimpse or two we get of Scarlett Johansson was more than agreeable. Bale and Jackson were very good as well. But I especially liked Rebecca Hall who played Borden's wife Sarah. I thought she was outstanding.
Now that Christopher Nolan has had back to back commercial successes with Batman Begins (2005), and The Prestige (2006), maybe it's time to think about where his career is going. Is he going to become a film maker known for his artistry like Stanley Kubrick or a film maker who knows how to appeal to the marketplace like Steven Spielberg? On the one hand there are Nolan's artistic films, Memento (2000) and Insomnia (2002) and on the other hand there are his big screen commercial successes, this film and Batman Begins. Knowing the constraints placed on film makers by the need to get funding and to turn a profit, it may be that he is trying to be both. In fact perhaps the best way to look at The Prestige and Batman Begins is to recognize that they are artistic films made within industry constraints that require mass market appeal.
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)