Here's my review of the film, The Prestige.

Are You Watching Closely?

The Prestige
4 out of 5

A movie like The Prestige reminds us that going out to see a magician perform was once as common as going to the movies. Technology has “pulled back the curtain” so to speak on such magic, and it’s a lot harder to fool people in the same way, but such magic does still exist. The only difference is that the practitioners no longer wear black hats--instead they sit in Hollywood studios and wave their hands this way and that and poof! Audiences walk out of theaters happily surprised—at least they do when the Nolan brothers are at the helm.

Based on a Christopher Priest novel of the same name, The Prestige tells the tale of Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Borden (Christian Bale), two men working as audience “volunteers” and friendly apprentices for an older illusionist. Their friendship turns sour, however, when a mistake in the act leads to the death of Angier’s wife, and from there on in, it’s a cold and dark display of two men bent on discrediting the other while at the same time sharing an identical obsession—the fame, fortune and prestige of being the best illusionist in 19^th century London.

The story is masterfully laid out by Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, known best for the fragmented storytelling style exhibited in Memento and Batman Begins. The film’s only flaw comes from unevenness stemming from the actual nature of the characters. Jackman’s Angier is a natural showman with little smarts in creating tricks, while Bale’s Borden is the true genius but a creepy introvert both on stage and off. The story mostly follows the more likable Angier, including a trip to Colorado to meet with real life inventor Nikola Tesla (a terrifically bizarre turn by David Bowie) to create a special machine he hopes will enable him to perform an illusion called the Transported Man. While the filmmakers slight of hand is endlessly engrossing, the characters themselves are difficult to sympathize with as they throw aside all that matters to them (including love interest Scarlett Johansson, who looks completely lost) until it seems even they can not recall what exactly began their tumultuous feud. Nevertheless the audience will be hard pressed to look away as it seems at every turn you feel you are getting a peak behind the magicians cloak, only to see another hallway of smoke and mirrors.

The inclusion of Nikola Tesla as well as Thomas Edison in the film—themselves bitter rivals in the game of invention and vying for grant money—hint at the film’s underlying theme. Set in a time when electricity was first being discovered, The Prestige shows us that the true magic in the world lies not with illusionists, which we know deep down are simply tricking us, but rather with the progression of science and technology, which even today are the things that truly inspire awe.