The Prestige

The Prestige is a meticulous and smartly structured feature from director Christopher Nolan that unfolds the story of late 19th century rival magicians as though the film itself was an illusion of the time. Rupert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) both start their careers in magic as part of an act created by magical gizmo mastermind Cutter (Michael Caine). Eventually, Borden’s maverick personality causes a break in the friendship and the act, turning the former friends into dangerous rivals determined to sabotage each other’s solo performances for years to come. Their story leads to an elaborate and perilously twisty tale of betrayal, romance, and magical ethics as the two battle over a dazzling trick (“The Transported Man”) and an even more dazzling assistant (Scarlett Johansson as Olivia).

Nolan manages to keep his many overlapping stories in perfect harmony. It’s rare for a period piece of this level of intricacy to fly by with such efficiency, but Nolan unravels this delicate story with amazing ease. He also makes the film visually stunning and perfectly designed for the period, adding a depth and authenticity that something this fantastical could surely use. He manages to create a world where brutal reality and ideal fantasy stand side by side. After all, the film maintains that the job of a great magician (and possibly also a great filmmaker) is to let the viewers forget reality for a moment and let them believe that they really can achieve the impossible.

Jackman and Bale are superb sparing partners here and Caine is as good as ever playing ringleader to the magic circus and pseudo narrator to the film. The biggest surprise in the cast is Scarlett Johansson who after giving stiff performances in such recent films as Match Point and The Black Dahlia finally recaptures some of the charm and sincerity of her earlier, less glamorous work.

This is a topnotch stylistic drama that bends and folds its many narratives into a complex ball of mystery and then gradually peels away one layer after the next. Even though some of the major turns are foreseeable, Nolan stages them with such brilliant intensity and the cast delivers such amazing performances, that they feel perfectly satisfying nonetheless. Moreover, there’s a lovely sense of logic to these twists that defies the conventional demand for an entirely sudden and brash twist ending which depletes the value of the events that have come before it. Everything here merely comes to a twisted, vicious, and perfect conclusion.

Grade: A