Critics have been warned not to reveal the plot secrets of the exhilarating dueling-magicians movie “The Prestige.”
Which, of course, gets my back up, and inclines me toward giving something away out of spite – except I haven’t yet figured out the movie myself.
This picture about the soul of a trick has a tricky soul. So the hard- earned wonders of “The Prestige” are hereby preserved through a combination of the director’s skill and my own blissful ignorance.
Director Christopher Nolan, who adapted “The Prestige” from a book with his brother, Jonathan, never met a rabbit he couldn’t move to the least-suspected hat. He first twisted “Memento” into a feverish nightmare of audience surprise, then went on to the dark puzzle of “Insomnia.” His most commercial success, “Batman Begins,” was disarmingly smart, and Nolan let good casting do much of Batman’s work.
All those directing skills are in evidence with “The Prestige,” which follows the long feud of Victorian-era illusionists Borden (Christian Bale) and Angier (Hugh Jackman). Nolan takes us inside the gritty world of competing showmen, and explores their lives seriously, only to reveal that much of what we’ve just seen may itself have been an illusion.
“The Prestige” begins in the middle, folds back to the beginning, lurches forward toward the end, and doubles back again. Borden and Angier start as lowly helpers to a mediocre magician. Angier’s wife is the pretty assistant, and Borden is the audience plant who must tie her up in a way that allows her to escape a dunk tank. She drowns, and Angier vows a lifetime of revenge on Borden.
We also know that, later in chronological time, Borden is on trial for drowning Angier. He allegedly sneaked backstage during Angier’s dunk-tank trick and jammed the secret escape door.
In between, Borden and Angier battle across London and America, alternately stealing tricks or sabotaging each others’ acts. Bale is his usual intense self, to good end here, as a magician more condescending than entertaining. Jackman’s Angier, meanwhile, has the stage presence to make himself rich, but perhaps not the psychological depth to stay ahead in the feud he started.
The fact we don’t much like either one of these wayward wizards is the only real problem with “The Prestige.” The story intentionally keeps us from identifying a winner, but letting us root for one would help.
Before the Nolans are done toying with us, we’ve even visited physicist Nikola Tesla in his Colorado Springs electricity lab – another trick, in a way, as Tesla is David Bowie disguising himself as a good actor.
The climax of “The Prestige” is a long argument over how both magicians carry out their versions of “The Transported Man,” a trick that requires the illusionist to be in two places at once.
What can a critic say that will help you enjoy the movie without giving away any secrets? The same you’d tell yourself before a spine-tingling magic show: Believe nothing the showmen say about themselves, or their associates. Remember there’s a reason some refer to magic as the dark arts.
And the best explanation for a trick might be the simplest. Unless there’s real magic involved, in which case, you’re on your own. Call when you’ve figured it out.
|“The Prestige”
PG-13 for mild language, violence and adult subject matter|2 hours|PERIOD THRILLER|Directed by Christopher Nolan, written by Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, based on the book by Christopher Priest; starring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie and Michael Caine|Opens today at area theaters.
