Classic Review: The Prestige (2006)

No one does obsession better than Christopher Nolan. Or at least, not as entertainingly. From Memento‘s Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) to Inception‘s Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) to the obvious of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) in the Dark Knight trilogy, Nolan’s filmography is crowded with characters who drive themselves to unhuman limits to accomplish whatever they are looking to accomplish – and frequently, no matter the price. That is certainly the case with The Prestige.

The Prestige focuses on Robert Angier (Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Bale), two magicians who have an act together. While Borden is always pushing the limits, Angier is the restrained one. During one of their shows, something goes wrong resulting in Angier’s wife, Julia (Piper Perabo), drowning. That incident placed the two former friends on a collision course, made worse once Borden comes up with a fantastic premise for a new act: transferring himself from one spot on a stage to another. The act is a huge success, puzzling Angier to the point where he starts investigating, sending his own assistant, Olivia (Johansson) to work for Borden as a spy. Angier becomes completely obsessed with the act and must find a way to upstage his old partner.

The Prestige is a magic trick of a film about people doing magic tricks and for the most part, it works. As it often happens with Nolan’s films, one comes to appreciate the complexities of his narrative upon further watches – that way, one could fully enjoy his trickeries and the complexities he creates – even when some of them doesn’t necessarily hold up on second viewing. Nolan has this amazing quality that shows in his best entries, where there are two ways to experience his films: one is when viewers watch it for the first time and are mesmerized by his creation. And then when we know what he’s up to. But instead of removing the viewer from the experience, Nolan creates this shared experience that makes it easy to respond to the picture while almost feeling like an accomplice to the creation. That’s why Nolan’s films are so unique (even the ones that are truly awful to the point of laughter like Interstellar).

The Prestige has a fascinating promise: what would one be willing to do to beat their biggest opponent? Would one be willing to sell their soul for that? That’s exactly what Angier does, and what turns it the more fascinating is that he takes that path because he is certain Borden has taken it too. Jackman and Bale sell the story pretty well as Angier and Borden, with the helping hand of Johansson as Olivia, and the always great Rebecca Hall and David Bowie as Sarah and Tesla respectively. What starts as a simple straightforward story becomes darker and more complex, mostly because the relationships are always changing. Meanwhile, the ending is particularly sad, again, as characters faced the proverbial price of their actions.

And as in all Nolan’s works, technically the film is beautiful, especially the cinematography, creating a fantastic atmosphere for the entire experience that is watching it. Yet the film never truly achieves greatness. In the end, The Prestige is not among Nolan’s strongest entries, but it is still a worthy experience.

still courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

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