Director Christopher Nolan’s next film after the superb Batman
Begins is an adaptation of the Christopher Priest novel The Prestige. This time,
Batman Begins star Christian Bale co-stars with X-Men Hugh Jackman in this
thriller that takes place in England in the early part of the 20th century. Bale
plays Alfred Borden, and Jackman plays Robert Angier, two up and coming young
magician’s assistants who’re working for the Great Milton (played by real life
magician Ricky Jay, who also served as one of the magic consultants for the
film). They pretend to be audience volunteers who come up on stage and bind
Milton’s pretty assistant Julia with rope, so that she can perform a
death-defying escape act inside a water tank.
It’s Borden’s job onstage to bind Julia’s wrists, and he argues with Cutter
(Michael Caine), Milton’s behind the scenes magic trick designer, that the trick
would work better if he tied Julie with a different knot. Cutter tells him to
stick to the tried and true plan. However, one night, something goes horribly
wrong, and Julia, unable to get free, drowns onstage. What makes the situation
even worse was that Julia was Angier’s wife, and he blames Borden for killing
her by tying her wrists with the wrong knot. This sets off a deadly feud between
the men that lasts through the years as they each become successful magicians
in London. Their feud verges on the psychotic as each man raises the stakes in
his attempt to tear the other down.
Hugh Jackman is very good as the obsessed Angier, as is Christian Bale as the
equally driven Borden. Their performances instantly make you forget that you’re
watching Wolverine and Batman as you get caught up in this intense story of
rivalry and one-upmanship. Scarlet Johansen, appearing in her second film with
Jackman (they also co-starred in Woody Allen’s Scoop), is sympathetic as
Angier’s new stage assistant who gets caught up in the vicious feud. And Michael
Caine, who played the part of Alfred the butler to perfection in Batman Begins,
gives another great performance as the wise Cutter. David Bowie is fascinating
to watch as the electrical genius Tesla, and Andy Serkis, better known to Lord
Of The Rings fans as Gollum, does a great job playing Tesla’s long suffering
assistant.
Nolan and his brother, co-screenwriter Jonathan Nolan, have made some big changes to
Christopher Priest’s outstanding novel--most notably dropping the modern day
storyline that bookends the story, as well as considerably upping the ante of
what caused the feud between Borden and Angier. Yet these changes are valid, and
the film works all the better for it. The term ‘Prestige’ refers to the payoff
of a magic act. And as Nolan expertly pulls you into this absorbing
psychological thriller that deals with the faux world of magic, and the very
real high price that both Borden and Angier run the risk of paying for putting
their egos above all else in life, he reveals the payoff of this film is one
well worth waiting for.
--SF
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