When you look at any of Christopher Nolan’s films, they can usually be summed up in a single word. Dunkirk is about survival, Insomnia is about guilt and The Prestige is no different as obsession takes centre stage. Adapted from the Christopher Priest novel of the same title, Nolan’s period drama tells the story of two rival magicians in Victorian London obsessed with being the best in their field.
Sandwiched between the first two parts of his lauded Dark Knight trilogy, The Prestige sometimes gets overlooked amidst Christopher Nolan’s impressive back catalogue of work yet it is an enthralling tale of the lengths a man will go to for a magic trick.
The men in question, Robert Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) begin the film as friends but the death of Angier’s wife fractures their relationship beyond repair setting in motion an increasingly deadly game where they try to one-up each other.
Obsession is a young man’s game
Upon witnessing Borden’s “Transported Man” trick, Angier confesses that it is the greatest magic he has ever seen, mutating his obsession from getting answers to his wife’s death to outdoing Borden. Despite taking his trick and popularising it with his superior showmanship his obsession only worsens as he sees the life he could have had through Borden’s family but this is all smoke and mirrors as Borden’s marriage is far from perfect.
Borden is so obsessed with being the best that he pursues a double life with his twin brother. Enough for them but not for those who loved them. This shared life proves too much for Borden’s wife Sarah (Rebecca Hall) who can’t deal with the constant changes in Borden’s personality which ultimately leads to her suicide.
Although obsession is at the forefront throughout, Nolan acts like the ultimate magician with The Prestige. With a tight and clever script (co-written with his brother Jonathan Nolan) he offers many twists and turns throughout distracting the audience from the answers that are hiding in plain sight before the big reveal at the end film.
Are You Watching Closely?
Right from the very beginning, the audience is posed a simple question, “Are you watching closely?” This is not just a question but a challenge for them to untangle the mysteries of what is about to unfold. These mysteries are framed through the art of a magic trick at the beginning of the film.
John Cutter (a stage engineer played with a great deal of warmth by Michael Caine), details these in three steps (the pledge, the turn and the prestige) like the three-act structure of the film which on the surface may appear like a basic method of storytelling for the film but Nolan strays from convention.
By employing a disjointed narrative framed through the journals of the central characters the film to jump back and forth in time, honing the audience’s attention in on specific segments rather than the film as a whole. It is this sleight of hand that allows Nolan to foreshadow and hint at the big reveal whilst allowing the film to be shrouded in mystery which is also aided by David Julyan’s atmospheric score.
There are several moments throughout the film where the ending is foreshadowed. When Sarah meets Borden for the first time after a magic show, her nephew is distressed by the outcome of a cruder version of a disappearing bird trick. Borden tries to reassure him by showing the live bird but the boy asks where his brother is, revealing how he knows the mechanics of the trick.
How one bird dies and another is revealed at the end. The sacrifice involved behind a good magic trick and ultimately the sacrifice Borden makes when his twin is hung at the end of the film.
It is further emphasised through Borden’s relationship with Sarah. She questions his love for her, saying that some days he means it and others he doesn’t, making the days that he does mean it all the more special. The notable differences in his behaviour in these scenes with Sarah appear to be due to his focus on his magic when in fact it is because only one brother truly loved her whilst the other was obsessed with perfecting his “Transported Man” trick.
When Angier talks about the experience of witnessing “The Transported Man” for the first Cutter tries to offer him a logical and obvious explanation, that Borden is using a double but he is convinced otherwise. The showman in him wants to believe that there is much more to it than meets the eye. Again we offered the obvious (and ultimately correct) solution from Cutter who has the answers but the audience like Angier seek out something more spectacular thinking the simple solution is too good to be true.
Man’s Reach Exceeds His Nerve
One of Nolan’s greatest achievements in film making is his ability to ground the fantastical in reality. With his Dark Knight trilogy, he made us believe that a man dressed up as a bat could clean up crime in a major American city and here he takes the famous inventor/engineer, Nikola Tesla (played to perfection by David Bowie) and gives him an almost otherworldly mystique. In a world of magicians, he is a wizard. In his castle in the hills of Colorado, he experiments with electricity making the seemingly impossible possible. This is where the incredible production design and cinematography work wonders for the film.
From lighting up the entire field of light bulbs to walking through beams of electricity, Angier witnesses an almost unbelievably form of magic, convincing him that the method needed to pull off the greatest magic trick the world has ever seen can be achieved with the help of Tesla. Despite Tesla’s warning of the true cost of pursuing his obsessions, Angier has gone too far down a rabbit hole to turn back. He has suffered irreversible physical and emotional damage at the hands of Borden to the point that he is willing to do anything, no matter the cost.
Abracadabra
With the end comes the revelation of Borden’s twin which is surprising but obvious when you think about it but it is only the first part in the two-part reveal. We find out the horrific truth behind Angier’s latest iteration of “The Transported Man”.
A duplicate of Angier is created by the machine and teleported to another part of the theatre whilst the original drops into a water tank below the stage to drown. This makes the trick all the more horrifying knowing that it had been performed 100 times by Angier. His reach may have exceeded his imagination but his hands are now well and truly dirty as he tallies up the true cost of his pursuit.
Long after the final credits roll the film lingers long in the mind taking an obsessive hold akin to that of the film’s main characters. You try to untangle its secrets, it’s mysteries and their impact. The narration at the end from Cutter may indicate that we as the audience don’t want to work things out and that we want to be fooled but this can’t be said for The Prestige. A major part of its appeal over the years has been its deconstruction.
Sure you might have enjoyed being fooled but anytime you return to the film you return to film you’ll keep asking yourself, why?
