Review of The Prestige (2006) by Jessica S — 01 Jun 2014

The Prestige was directed by Christopher Nolan and released in 2006. He was the maker of Inception, The Dark Knight, and other iconic movies. The original story that the film came from was Christopher Priest's novel of the same name. It was published in 1995.

The main plot of the movie revolves around a magician, Rupert Angier, (played by Hugh Jackman) trying to figure out another magician's trick, known as "The Transported Man". The other magician, Alfred Borden (played by Christian Bale), ends up trying to perfect his own act against his rival.

Additional characters include...

A man named Cutter (Michael Caine) who helps Angier with his magic acts.

Sarah Borden (Rebecca Hall) is Gordon's wife. She helps the audience figure out the truth of "The Transported Man".

Olivia Wenscombe (Scarlett Johansson) was Angier's assistant; she eventually grows close to Borden.

Nikola Tesla (David Bowie) who helped create the transportation machine for Angier.

This movie, being directed by Nolan, did have in Inception-type feel to it. It is a movie that that is constantly surprising you with what comes next and makes you actually think about what can/will happen. It keeps you guessing until the end. I really enjoyed the movie because it made what seemed impossible and magically into science. Just when you think you understand what is going on, the movie takes an unexpected turn and makes it into something you would have never even thought of. I also thought it was interesting how they incorporated real people into the movie (such as Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison).

My favorite quote of the movie is the opening line of Cutter's speech about magic. He says that "every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige"." Usually magic seems like something phantasmagorical and surreal, but he turned it into something that sounds normal and routine.

I believe the main theme of this movie was obsession, jealousy, and how it can drive people crazy. The main problem in the movie was that Angier wanted to "wow" more of his audience than Borden did. He became so obsessed with the illusion that it was the only thing he cared about all the way up to his death.