Twisted My Mnd Like a Magic Trick

Rating: 10/10 (21 November 2012)

In this movie about rival magicians in the turn of the century, the real magic is not found in the character's shows, but in the plot twists that director Christopher Nolan comes up with. Throughout the whole movie, the audience is taken on a blind roller coaster ride of things no one saw coming, yet somehow Nolan makes it work to where everything makes sense in the end. Along with great mystery that always keeps everyone guessing how the puzzle pieces of the movie fit together, the detailed cinematography of the secret behind early magic and interesting historic fiction of Nikola Tesla versus Thomas Edison add to the traction the film has with the audience. You will be left blown away at the brilliance behind this masterpiece and be craving more when it is over and done.
When the first scene opens, the "ingeniuer" John Cutter explains the three parts of a magic trick; "the pledge," "the turn," and "the prestige." These three components run how the movie plays out, unfolding as sort of a magic trick inside of a movie about magic. Robert Angier and Alfred Borden play two embittered magicians, sabotaging each other's magic performances ever since Borden inadvertently killed Angier's wife while she was performing a water escape routine. Angier realizes Borden has a better trick than he when he unveils "The Transporting Man," a trick in which he teleports between two cabinets. So the struggle of trying to outdo him as a magician turns this once harmless art (or "the pledge") into an obsession for Angier. The dark turn Angier takes in trying to be better makes the audiences lose what sympathy they had for him after losing his wife. Nolan turns the once protagonist into the antagonist as Angier begins to try and ruin Borden's life, including his family.
Angier spends countless dollars and travels around the world looking for a way to beat Borden's trick. His travels lead him to Nikola Tesla, a non fictional character who was an inventor in the U.S. Angier convinces Tesla to build him a machine which has an unknown affect on Angier. The film does well in keeping the purpose behind the machine secret, hinting at what it does, but never really telling you. This adds to the secrecy of what is truly going on in the movie, with what the audience seeing only scratching the surface of what is really going on. As Angier descends more into his mania, Borden is frustrated that Angier has come up with a much better transporting trick than his own, goes to investigate Angier's secret. What he finds is when Angier steps into the machine, he falls into a locked water box and drowns; Borden is convicted of Angier's death and is sentenced to death. But, in another turn of events, Angier is revealed to be alive, taking Borden's daughter into his own custody. This leaves no more feelings of kindness towards Angier as he lets an innocent man hang and takes his daughter. It is revealed that Tesla's machine makes exact copies of people, which Angier has killed every night after his show in the water box. Borden is hanged, becoming "the turn" as he seems to disappear from Angier's problems. At this point the movie should be over, Angier has won and taken his malicious revenge, but it doesn't end. No, Nolan decides to break out "the prestige," filling the audience with gasps and having their jaws hit the floor as Borden returns and shoots Angier. Throughout the entire movie, Borden has had a twin brother who has switched places with him with the other turning into Borden's assistant. The entire motion picture has been two plots at once, an amazing showmanship of mystique of the behalf of the director.
The Prestige is a wonderfully dark movie of deception, obsession, and revenge. All of these things mixed with the secrets of magic make the entire film a trick, a mind game that twists the watcher's imagination. In the end, the audience in both the movie and those watching the movie are fooled into thinking things could be so simple.