Director Christopher Nolan conjures cinematic magic

Magic is the art of entertaining an audience to divert their attention and subsequently give the impression that something impossible has taken place right before their eyes. “The Prestige,” released into theaters on Oct. 20, tells the tale of the escalating rivalry between two London magicians at the turn of the 19th century. Director Christopher Nolan constructs the narrative analogous to the magician’s illusions, triggering the expectation of an extraordinary, revelatory twist. But the final act is not a shock at all—the attentive viewer will have figured it out long before the exposition. The real magic is that the resultant predictability does not detract from Nolan’s highly engrossing film.
The film, based on the novel by Christopher Priest, opens with the death of illusionist Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) while his foe, Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), bears witness to his demise. The ensuing stories, cross-cut in semi-chronological order, follow the trial of Borden for Angier’s death, the formation and intensification of their rivalry, and Angier’s quest to commission a contraption he hopes will outshine his adversary.
Nolan, famous for his convoluted narratives (most notably in “Memento,” and “The Following”), employs a triple-narrative structure to parallel the idea that every magic trick is composed of three acts. This principle is uttered twice in the film by Cutter (Michael Caine), who designs the devices used by the magicians for their illusions. The three acts, he says, are the pledge (“where the magician shows you something that seems ordinary, but probably isn't”), the turn (“where the magician makes his ordinary something do something extraordinary”), and the prestige (“the part with the twists and turns…you see something shocking you've never seen before”).
Though Nolan’s narrative structure loops back and forth, bending time into a knot, the viewer is never befuddled. The non-sequential account actually serves to lock the viewer into the present tense of the film’s reality allowing what could have been a commonplace story to become an intriguing exploration.
On top of his penchant for complex narratives, Nolan has also mastered the art of establishing unlikable lead characters. The viewer’s sympathies are constantly thrown between Borden and Angier and never resolve to side with one or the other. This puts the viewer in a constant state of dissonance and creates a tension that furthers the sinister atmosphere of the film.
Jackman and Bale are equally impressive in the title roles. Jackman terrifically portrays Angier as man on a downward spiral into pure obsession and madness. And Bale has the remarkable chameleon-like ability to absorb whatever character he is playing to a degree that the viewer forgets every role he has played before it.
The women of “The Prestige” play their roles with varying degrees of greatness. Rebecca Hall, as Borden’s wife Sarah, leaves a lasting impression; she craftily portrays her character’s emotional battle with her husband’s on-off detachment and makes it evident with every part of her body. Scarlett Johansson, usually an actress of great depth and talent, relies solely on her pouty lips, good looks and raspy voice to play Angier’s assistant, Olivia; as Cutter tells Angier before she is hired, “a good looking assistant is the best distraction,” and, regrettably, Johansson is not much more than a distraction in the film.
David Bowie is the most eccentric casting choice made in “The Prestige,” but that fact only adds to his extraordinary turn as famous inventor Nikola Tesla. As an electrical engineer during the Industrial Revolution, Tesla represents the real magic of scientific invention over the prestidigitator’s illusions. Tesla and his famous competitor, Edison, act as counterparts for the film’s main characters Borden and Angier; Tesla, like Borden, was a genius who lacked the presentation and expediency of his rival Edison, who shares with Angier the gift of showmanship and practicality.
The dutiful viewer, taking a cue from the film’s opening line (“are you watching closely?”), will recognize the many cinematic foreshadowing elements and visual metaphors that Nolan utilizes to solve the riddle long before the “prestige” is revealed, but Nolan’s storytelling is so riveting, the acting is so phenomenal, and the pacing is so perfect, that not a minute of the film’s finale will be spent unimpressed.