The Prestige: Christopher Nolan's Magic Trick

Are you watching closely?

I want to clarify something before I get into this article: when I call The Prestige a magic trick, I mean that as a backhanded compliment, and I hope to make it clear as to why I think that with this article. Now, don't get me wrong: this film is one of my all-time favorites, and that has to do with the fact that The Prestige is something of a confluence of its technical aspects and its clever gimmicks rather than its objective merits as a film, almost exactly like a good magic trick, at least if you ask me. In some ways, I think that the ways this film plays with its imperfections may be just as impressive as some of Nolan's near-undisputed masterpieces like The Dark Knight and Inception, just in a different way, and I'll admit that it's not an effect I've seen quite replicated by any other film. While I was watching The Prestige for the first time, in a lot of ways, I felt like a talented and less-experienced director had learned to embrace his imperfections and run with them in a way that actually made his film special, and I'd never really experienced anything like this before, because Interstellar didn't do this. The flaws in that film were apparent. The Dark Knight didn't do this. It truthfully didn't have much need to. Same with Inception. And to tell you the truth, I haven't seen Dunkirk in a long time, and I may need to go back and watch that film again to see if Nolan did something like this. The point I'm making here is that The Prestige doesn't just stand out from other films: it stands out from other Nolan films, and today, I want to talk about it, flaws and all, because the way it deals with its flaws is actually what makes it stand out from Nolan's other films in the first place. I'll explain, I promise.

The Prestige is a period thriller set in 1800s London, and it follows two magicians, Alfred Borden, and Robert Angier, as they feud bitterly and dangerously amongst themselves after Borden develops a seemingly impossible trick: teleportation. If you've already seen the film, I know that you're already complaining about my synopsis, but here's the thing: I am not going to spoil this film for those who have not. I know you'll beg me and flatter me for the secret, but as soon as I give it up, I'm nothing to you.

I think that I want to hit an obvious note here at the start of this review and praise The Prestige for its obvious technical prowess. Its showmanship on this front is absolutely unmistakable and hits high marks all across the board, from the moody cinematography courtesy of Wally Pfister to the absolutely incredible editing by Lee Smith, the latter of whom is genuinely the unsung hero of the film and who's skill in editing is immediately apparent from the very opening moments of this magician's epic, even more so to those of us who have done a lot of editing. The production design of the film is especially good and lends an air of authenticity to Nolan's vision of Victorian-Era London, despite containing almost no computer-generated imagery whatsoever, in true Christopher Nolan fashion. This film feels real because a lot of what you see is real, and other directors in the field of filmmaking would be wise to learn from Nolan and his impressive command of practical effects and eschew computer graphics, except for when they truly are necessary. Everything you see on screen looks like it has a genuine weight to it, and I think that this tangibility is important for immersion's sake.

As for the bigger philosophical ideas and themes of the film, they almost always play second fiddle to the plot and characters, as they should, but they are interesting nonetheless, as they should be. I thought that the film's exploration of how far Borden and Angier were willing to go for the sake and the love of the trick was fascinating, and I can only wish that every movie character loved their writer-assigned roles as much as these two loved their magic. The passion is on full display and never watered down in any way. In fact, our characters take their love of the trick so far that it becomes a huge liability for both of them. On a more structural level, I found the non-linear storytelling that went hand-in-hand with the philosophy of the film to be mostly a blessing but also a bit of a curse. It's certainly there and noticeable, and it's admittedly impressive, but I never got the sense that it needed to exist in any way. It would make sense to see this method of storytelling in a film like Inception or Tenet that plays with time and space, but in a film about 19th-century British magicians, it sometimes feels out of place and often behaves less like a legitimate story aspect and more like Nolan flexing for the camera. But still, it impressed me, and that's enough to make me happy. I found my loyalties constantly switching between Borden and Angier, and the more gimmicky aspects of the film did assist this uncertainty, if maybe not enough to completely justify their existence. In addition, despite strong performances across the board, I couldn't help but feel that "obsessed" was the only personality trait of both Borden and Angier, and I found myself wishing that there was a bit more to their characters than what Nolan chose to explore. But at the end of the day, I was happy with what I got from the two magicians, and that's saying something, especially because this film does lack in some areas.

As far as the twist at the end of this film goes (don't worry, I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't seen The Prestige), it was entirely unpredictable and really caught me off-guard in a way that will probably please a lot of people. However, I personally had mixed feelings about it. It's shocking, yes, and in a lot of ways, it makes sense. However, at the same time, it relied on a decent amount of in-scene context-switching that reshaped a lot of what we had already seen, and this felt a little bit cheap, like the film had set up a whole bunch of different emotional beats and plot threads and then just kind of did away with them entirely in a way that wasn't completely intellectually or structurally satisfying. But hey, if nothing else, it's a twist that caught me very off-guard, and I will give it that. However, I found myself wishing that this twist had justified itself more and couldn't shake the feeling that Nolan had kind of just pulled something out of his behind, had created the twist for the sake of creating the twist, or even a little bit of both. In a lot of ways, The Prestige felt very much like a good magic trick to me. It's flawed, even fundamentally flawed at points, but it's very good at hiding its flaws behind the magic of filmmaking, and in some ways, this effect is almost a little bit more impressive than if this film had been technically perfect or close to it, even if a lot of what goes on in this film is illusory of quality rather than necessarily indicative of it.

All in all, I really loved this film, even if some of its more eccentric habits may not necessarily be completely forthcoming, and I just wanted to talk about and review it today. It's one of Nolan's older projects and doesn't get as much love as some of his more recent outings, films like The Dark Knight or Interstellar, and I just wanted to give it appreciation where appreciation is due while also leveling some criticism to level the scales that a lot of cinephiles (who aren't very much unlike myself) have tipped really aggressively in the film's favor. But that said, I think this is a movie that everyone should watch at some point because it serves as an impressive intellectual exercise and can really play with your mind in ways that only Nolan could. It's an interesting movie about obsession taken too far, and furthermore, it's intriguing like a good magic trick can be, and it's really good at getting and holding your attention. Of course, what you get out of a thinking-based, somewhat puzzling film like this one may depend on how much attention you choose to give this film. So, dear reader, one more time...

...are you watching closely?

The Prestige - 8/10

2 Thessalonians 2:9-10