The Prestige

Christopher Priest's Victorian-magician novel The Prestige would appear to be unfilmable. The book is written as two entirely different texts, one a memoir and the other a diary, plus a framing narrative about descendants of the rival magicians Alfred Borden and Robert Angier trying to figure out the secrets behind their rivalry. It's a very twisty and literary book, relying heavily on unreliable-narrator games, and doesn't seem at all like the sort of thing that would play well on the screen.

I was surprised to hear that it had been adapted as a movie, then, and even more surprised to find that it's a really well done movie. If anybody was going to succeed with this, it would've been Christopher Nolan, who did Memento, and he does probably as well as you possibly could with the material. There's a good deal of adapation required to make it work visually, but the changes to the story are very effective, and true to the original spirit.

Nolan keeps the unreliable-narrator stuff alive by doing the movie as a set of interlocking flashbacks. The movie opens with Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) watching his rival Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) drown in a locked water tank below stage, and then moves to the prison where Borden is being held during his trial. In an effort to induce him to give up his secrets, a wealthy lord provides him with a copy of Angier's diary covering a period in which Angier was deciphering Borden's notebooks, in an effort to figure out how he did his signature illusion, "The Transported Man."

The story jumps way back to the days when both Borden and Angier were assistants to another magician, and covers their rise to the top of the entertainment world in early 20th-century London. Angier blames Borden for his wife's death, which starts a vicious and bloody rivalry that spans several years. Eventually, both rivals are doing competing versions of "The Transported Man," in which the magician vanishes from one point on the stage, and reappears elsewhere. Angier becomes obsessed with figuring out how Borden does the trick, going so far as to travel to America to seek help from reclusive nutbar genius Nikola Tesla.

(As an aside, I really don't get the fascination people have with Tesla, who turns up as a key figure in a large number of secret histories and pseudo-pulp novels about the period. Whatever the reason, he's very effectively played here by David Bowie, a casting choice that frankly made me really nervous. It's not camp in the least, thank God.)

Despite advice from both Bowie as Tesla and Michael Caine as Alfred the butler, Angier continues to pursue his obsession, launching a spectacular new version of the trick, and taking his rivalry with Borden in a new and monstrous direction. There are schemes within schemes here, and the double-crosses continue even beyond death.

Bale and Jackman give very good performances, and Caine and Bowie (and Andy Serkis as Tesla's henchman) do a great job with their supporting roles. Bale in particular does an excellent job of showing the conflict and desperation of Borden's chaarcter. Scarlett Johansson looks very pretty, but doesn't have a lot to do as the woman caught between them, and the rest of the cast is a collection of "haven't I seen you in something else?" British actors.

The real highlights here are the script and direction. The script puts enough information out there to let you see how the trick is done (if you've read the book, and know how it ends), but also makes just enough changes to the original to keep you guessing. And the direction is similarly excellent-- the movie always plays fair, and the real secret becomes progressively more obvious as the story unfolds, if you know where to look, but it doesn't give it away before the appropriate moment.

I do wonder how the movie comes off to someone who doesn't already know how the trick is done. I think I can see that it's constructed well even from that perspective, but the story is dependent enough on the secret that I might be completely wrong. I do recommend both the book and the movie, though it's hard to say which would be more affected by prior knowledge. I'd probably go with seeing the movie first-- if nothing else, it's shorter...

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I had not read the book and I found the movie fascinating. No cheats, plenty of "oh, so THAT'S what that meant back at the beginning" moments, and a satisfyingly intricate plot that made the work of paying attention to it well worth the effort.

But don't let Coturnix hear you dissing Tesla! ;-)

I just caught the movie on Friday, so it was nice to read a thoughtful review... well more thoughtful than mine anyway. ("Good mind-f*ck movie! Go see!") The book is heading for the amazon wishlist right away.

If you like this movie you will love THE ILLUSIONIST. Edward Norton is the mysterious magician and Jessica Biel is his impossible love in a movie that is magical and romantic.

If you don't get the fascination people have with Tesla, then you don't know enough about him..go read Prodigal Genius or (less recommended) Man out of Time. This is the father of radio and modern wireless. If you use a remote control, if you have a cell phone, television, computer, radio, and anything with an electric motor in your home, you owe Tesla a "thank you". This man envisioned a world wireless Internet before anyone knew what a computer was. In addition, he took some of the first X-ray photographs...ok, i'll stop there. Neon lights?...ok..im done.

By Airsick Dragon (not verified) on 13 Nov 2006 #permalink

I have to suspect that the fascination stems less from his accomplishments than from the fact that he was world-class crazy...

I hadn't read the book and enjoyed the movie, although the ending twist was obvious after the hat scene. However, I read a lot of "this sort" of stuff, so I was perhaps prepped to see the twist.

(Partial Spoiler)

My only real annoyance with the movie was the many duplicate water escape boxes. While it made for a good visual, it stretches belief too much to imagine that he wouldn't have found a way to make do with a single box.

The ending is slightly different in the book, and the final visual is probaby a tribute to the very creepy scenario in the book. Overall, the movie is probably a little darker than the book, but they're both pretty creepy.

The many duplicate boxes didn't really make sense to me, either, but it does make a nice image. And Michael Caine's parting shot is terrific, so I'll forgive the slightly silly box thing.

I loved the movie, didn't read the book. As it turns out, a great grandfather was an inventor and friend of Tesla when he lived in New York state and there are many stories that have been passed down through the family of their goings on.

Tesla invented the AC engine by a stroke of genius that stunned the rest of the world. And that was just one of many things.