THE PRESTIGE  (and a word on THE ILLUSIONIST)

Misdirection, in the parlance of the magician,  is the act of leading the audience’s attention away from the sleight of hand that makes objects miraculously appear or disappear. You might say it is the act of pulling the wool over the eyes of the unsuspecting to conceal the essence of the magician’s art. Director Christopher Nolan has tried, like the magicians in his latest movie, “The Prestige,” to misdirect his audience at the end of the movie with a single image that I perceived as a way of drawing attention away from a gaping hole in the plot.

The condition and disposition of a dead body that is never shown under examination or at its burial is a key element that makes or breaks the movie. Magician Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) is accused of killing his rival Rupert Angier (Hugh Jackman)  by sabotaging a huge water tank used as a prop in an escape trick. It is presumed that Angier drowned. Yet a revelation - or confession,  not of the spiritual kind - at the end of the movie shows that the victim is shot to death. Then just after the last act of revenge Nolan pulls the camera back ever so slowly. A life size model of the deceased submerged in a sealed glass water tank creeps into the left side of the frame alluding to an idea for a trick about escaping one’s own grave that was whimsically mentioned earlier in the story. But the facts revealed at film’s end blatantly contradict the evidence of a drowning. With this one revelation, the carefully constructed foundation upon which the plot  of “The Prestige” was built falls apart like a house of cards.

Set in the Victorian era, “The Prestige” flits back and forth through time from the murder trial and the story that leads up to it. Alfred Borden is accused of killing Rupert Angier Both began as friends - apprentice magicians learning their craft as shills summoned nightly from the audience to tie the hands of their boss’ assistant, Julia (Piper Perabo), before she is lowered into a water tank. She also happens to be Angier’s wife. One night Julia drowns. Angier blames Borden. They part company in a flurry of accusations and recriminations. Both become competent magicians in their own right.  Angier wins his audience through showmanship but it is Borden who masters a trick called The Transported Man. Each man guards his secrets like Coca Cola guards its formula. To steal the secret to any magician’s trick is to drain his life force. They are more precious than life itself even at the cost of loved ones. Angier sabotages Borden’s show. Borden seeks revenge. Back and forth it goes until their willful acts of destruction spill over into their personal lives. Planned acts of retribution drive a wedge between Borden and his wife Sarah (Rebecca Hall). Angier convinces Olivia (Scarlett Johannson), his new assistant and lover, to prove her love for him by becoming Borden’s assistant to learn how he performs The Transported Man. She and Borden fall in love, yet Borden seems still to love his wife. He is an enigma seeming to turn his affection for both women on and off at will. The more successful he becomes the more his life becomes  shrouded in mystery. Nolan explores the mechanics of the magician’s trade and the role future technology will play in the magician’s trade in the guise of Tesla (David Bowie)

Layer upon layer of misdirection is intended to lead viewer away from the obvious with lovers and associates paying the ultimate price all in the name of jealousy, revenge  and magic. “The Prestige” works best when dealing with the sturm and drang meted out by Angier and Borden giving the movie more emotional heft that it deserves. Nolan can thank the compelling performances of his leads for that. Michael Caine likewise adds another dimension as Angier’s engineer and conscience. Many of the story’s surprises fall into place like pieces of a puzzle, but the single most important revelation - the victim’s cause of death - still negates everything that comes before it. I felt betrayed.

Surprisingly,  the disposition of a body is also critical to the plot of “The Illusionist” which came out near the end of  the summer. Revenge of a different nature is also integral to this story about class struggle and a battle of wills between a magician and the future King of Austria over the heart of a woman. The story  occupies roughly the same time frame as “The Prestige” but it is set in Vienna. Edward Norton is mesmerizing as the mysterious master magician, Eisenheim, as is Paul Giamatti as the police inspector who seems to be modeled after the character of Jalvert in “Les Miserables.” Jessica Biel is the love interest and Rufus Sewell is the Crown Prince of Austria who makes everybody’s life miserable. “The Illusionist” comes to  a much more satisfying conclusion than “The Prestige” thanks to its writer/director, Neil Burger.

Another tidbit worth mentioning: Ricky Jay, a professional magician and actor by trade and a member of writer/director David Mamet’s stock company was an advisor on both films and appears in “The Prestige.”

                                                                                                                      Copyright 2006