The Prestige

Rating: 8/10 (24 February 2011)

From director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia, The Dark Knight, Inception), released near about the same time as The Illusionist starring Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti, both films have strong similarities, I was interested to see which of the two I'd find better. Basically, in 19th Century London, famous magician Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) is on trial for the suspected murder of rival magician Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), and through flashback we see how their story played out all the way to the trial. So Alfred and Robert were originally good friends working as magician assistants for performer Milton (Ricky Jay), and their engineer for all the tricks and illusions on stage was Cutter (Sir Michael Caine). Their friendship turns into strong rivalry between each other when Robert's wife Julia McCullough (Piper Perabo) is put in the glass box of water to perform the famous escape trick, but Alfred supposedly tied a different knot for her to untie, therefore Robert blames him for her death from drowning. Separately they both become magician performers with their own stage show acts, Borden calls himself The Professor, while Angier becomes The Great Danton, and trying to ruin each other's performance, and maybe get new ideas for astonishing acts, they both disguise themselves once or twice to do just this. Robert has a new wife Sarah (Rebecca Hall) who gives him a daughter, and he has Cutter and his new assistant Olivia Wenscombe (Scarlett Johansson), but he is looking for a new and revolutionary illusion. In disguise he attends the performance of his Rival, and he astonishes the audience with his new act, The Transported Man, and he wants to try and recreate the act, i.e. steal it, for himself, so Cutter finds him a very convincing lookalike to achieve this. But Robert wants to find out the real way to do the trick, or better create his own extraordinary alternative to it, and he finds that with some new technological marvel for real transportation, almost like teleportation. When he has perfected the act, and he knows Albert will be disguised in the audience and watching, that is when he lures him backstage to witness him fall through the trap door for the trick, and drown in the below water tank. That is how Albert is caught and imprisoned for the "murder", however he is shocked when he finds out that Robert is still alive, in disguise, and that he framed him. The film mentions the three important magic trick components: 1) the setup - show the something ordinary, 2) the performance, make something change, and 3) the prestige, bring the something back. The final shock of the film is not Robert being alive, but being killed by Albert, and the revelation that he has an identical twin brother, and that the real man is not the one in prison, oh, and that's how The Transported Man worked. Also starring Samantha Mahurin as Jess Borden, David Bowie as Tesla, Andy Serkis as Alley, Daniel Davis as Judge and Roger Rees as Owens. Jackman and Bale are equally matched as the mentally duelling magicians, Caine is really good as the man in amongst it all, Johansson gets her moments too, and the direction by Nolan is perfectly timed. The special effects for the magic is really good, the tricks themselves look as though they could be done for real, and the story is engaging, as for whether this is better than The Illusionist, it is, a terrific period mystery thriller. It was nominated the Oscars for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography. Very good!