Magic Tricks

A secret is what a magician likes to keep to himself even if it means carrying it to his own grave.

No matter what the cost. What matters is the performance, the awe of it that shatters the disbelieving. Leaving the audience in an empty gasp, “How does he do it?”

That’s the very gist of the film Prestige which opened last weekend in theaters with a surprisingly turn for a darker edge, the grim reality that befalls struggling magicians and their potential lives. This film focuses on the friendship that turns into a bitter rivalry. And their lives begin to crumble as they reach a Mount Everest of obsession.

The film shows the weakness that magicians may have: the desire to be in the center of everything.

I like to call the film Wolverine Vs. Batman. Hugh Jackman Vs. Christian Bale. The wolverine and the bat. You really can’t avoid it. But it is these two actors who help carry the film’s believability. You can feel their anguish, agony, often colored by ugly brutality as they try to outdo each other.

Some people sadly die around them, others vanish like a magician’s trick. But the one theme is always there—the self-centered staginess that seemed to inflict bellowing magicians. There is no regards for anyone else.

Jackman and Bale both play rivaled eighteenth century magicians, starting from humble beginnings to the London theatrical circuit star performances. At first, it is a friendly competition. But soon they begin to sabotage each other’s performances.

They are both deceiving. The failing of the magician.

The film is very dark with a Victorian atmosphere added to it, often clustered by the coldness of winter, sprawling shots of the city of London that seemed to sag with poverty, illuminating doom that catches people like a sickness. There are moments of dread that floods the city, the back alleys rigged with a feeling of loneliness. The city seems so cold, desolate, in so many ways. Such as the shot of the broken-down theatre, torn into ruins, towards the end of the film where Jackman delivers his final performances.

Much of the mood reflects the rivalry between the dueling magicians. It is a life of tragedy for them. By keeping secrets from each other, and their families and loved ones, they continue to go on a destructive path. Their lives would end up into broken ruins… much like the city they live in.

Some reviewers complain that the film is too slow. But I disagree with them. I found the pacing to be excellent, a slow building of tension, necessary to provoke a solid mood, a lesson to be learned when you’re reading an H.P. Lovecraft horror story. Excellently directed by Christopher Nolan. There’s a methodical, deliberating moving of scenes that is a wonderful set-up for the film's finale—the set up, as you will, of successive moments that lures you, reel you into the film’s real truths. Every door you open in the film leads to a different secret.

You find there is more to these two men than meets the eye.

More powerful performances come from actor Michael Caine, who’s always great in his films—a true presence. But he helps set up the film’s three part act, the last being the Prestige, or the pay-off. Also a surprisingly good job by from rock’n’roll star David Bowie as the mysterious Nikolas Telsa and his unique science at the turn of the century. It’s a good sub-plot where even his character tells Jackman not to go down the destructive path. A remark resonant to the rest of the film’s recurring theme.

So who won out in the end? Woverine? Or Batman? Actually it's both. Look very closely in the final scene before the credits roll up and you’ll see why.

Now I’ll have to be performing a magic trick. The one where I have to be going away. Be seeing you.