The Prestige

SPOILERS

I reached the conclusion of 2006's THE PRESTIGE a bit dazed and somewhat depressed.  Slightly dazzled too, admittedly.  It was an impressive experience - beautifully shot, swiftly directed, generally well acted.  The production design alone is worth the two plus hours.  But it's tempting to call Christopher Nolan's drama a good looking package with little of substance inside.  A film that is all about the employ of illusion to not only beguile paying customers, but also your rivals and their unfortunate loved ones.  Nolan's screenplay, co-written by his brother Jonathan, considers the hearts and minds of two late twentieth century magicians whose competition and bitter estrangement reveals their deep inhumanity, which leads to dire consequences for those closest to them.  Why are both so willing to lose love and even fortune to be the victor?

Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) is a natural showman who successfully engages his audience during his act.  He apparently has aristocratic origins (never explained). Working class Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) has less stage presence than his charge, but seems to have imagination for the job.  The pair had worked as a team until the night their assistant Julia (Piper Perabo), Robert's wife, dies during their patented water tank escape trick.  Alfred had decided to try a different style knot for Julia's wrists.  Robert will hold a grudge forever after.

Each go solo, repeatedly showing up in disguise as audience volunteers to sabatogue the other's shows.  There are injuries, and not just to themselves.  The one upsmanship gets nastier.  Alfred meanwhile finds a wife and sires a daughter - a happy life that Robert feels was stolen from him.  But all is not well with Borden and Sarah (Rebecca Hall), who correctly believes her husband is full of secrets and loves magic more than she.  Olivia (Scarlett Johansson) will play assistant to both men at different times, and likewise fall in love.  She fares no better, getting Robert to reveal that he in fact does not care about his dead wife, only the explanations of Borden's tricks (particularly "The Transported Man") within his coveted diary.

The later scenes in THE PRESTIGE develop the idea that science can service an illusionist's stage performance better than mere sleight of hand.  How this is so is something I'll let my invisible audience discover, though I can say it involves Nikola Tesla (a nicely cast David Bowie) and a machine that emits torrents of electrical fields.   As this portion of the story develops, I felt the film get somewhat out of hand.  I rarely use this phrase, but, yes "too clever for its own good."  It plays as if the Nolans, adapting Christopher Priest's novel, got excited about exponential plot development and lost some of what made this film so fascinating in the first place.  The themes of identity, duality, sacrifice, and singlemindedness remain, and are served by even the most outlandish events.

THE PRESTIGE is absorbing throughout, even if most of the time it is driven mainly by grim curiosity.  You are well aware that highly unpleasant things will happen to just about every character.  The tone is forboding and heavy, and while Jackman and Bale deliver superb performances, after awhile I began to lose my emotional investment in them (especially true by the finale). Neither is noble, or worthy of pity. As a character states, they deserve each other.