T/S: The Prestige vs. The Illusionist

A friend reports The Prestige was a fine book.

One of Bowie's odder looks.

x-post it opens today, I was able to see a free preview last night...

The Illusionist bugged me because the entire final act was based around a magic trick whose secret we are never told (which fits with the whole magician-can't-tell-secrets thing) so it just turns into a giant plot hole.

The Prestige would have been pretty good, overall, if it hadn't included that science fiction bullshit with Tesla's machine. A lot of the payoff came from the explanation of the tricks, which I enjoyed, but it would have held together much better without the how-many-clones-does-he-have? aspect.

Something is bugging me, though - why does [Bale] send [Jackman] off to Tesla? Tesla ends up giving him exactly what he needs for the best version of the trick! And [Bale] hasn't even used it himself - unless that double of his is actually a clone, rather than just a well-disguised friend or relative.

*END SPOILERS*

aND i

And I usually like Christian Bale better than Ed Norton.

I have a lot of questions about The Prestige. A lot. But I'll start with this: What was Cutter's motivation? Whose "side" was he on? He perjured himself at the very beginning, saying that the Bale character watched and did nothing as Jackman drowned. Why would Cutter want to frame one of the Bale twins for murder? In the interest of the other twin? Was one brother trying to kill the other? Was there one talented magician brother and one used and endentured brother? Or were they both magicians, both living the trick, and both with equal motivation to send the other to prison? And if that's the case, why not just kill the other brother? Grr. Ok, one more question. Why did Hugh Jackman suddenly have a British accent when he reappeared as the Lord or whatever? That was too obvious not to have been deliberate, but what does it mean? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Speaking of disguises, every disguise in the movie was horrendous except for that final twist one. What was the point?

They were broadcasting the brother thing. I think you were supposed to figure that out early. But there's so much that I haven't figured out. I don't think the Nolan's are making a movie with no answers -- they're not David Lynch. I'm missing something key. I should either see it again, or never think about it again.

Cutter was in the dark, he was working the front room of the theater. He had no idea how the machine worked, only that Angier was appearing at the back of the theater. That's why the stagehands were all blind -- so they never saw what was in the water tank. Cutter lies at the trial because he doesn't know how the trick works -- presumably Borden *did* kill Angier and he wants his friend's murderer to get the worst possible penalty.

Of course, once he figures out Angier is alive, he decides he's an asshole and deserves whatever he has coming -- that's why he lets Borden walk into the theater at the end. Angier knew that Borden would likely go downstairs at some point because both magicians always wanted to know how a trick was done. As chrisco said, pretty much.

I still don't get why he had to kill himself every night. Something to do with the way working with a double always comes to no good?

I'm glad I was spoiled - the 'prestige' would have just made the movie frustrating.

Did you miss "How big of a theater?" "Big enough so that HE will notice."

I was not watching closely, as per instructions.

it was really kinda stupid.

The biggest mystery was Scarlett Johansson's appearing and disappearing accent.

The main Hugh would take Cutter's advice to heart and launch a career as an all-around song-and-dance showman, with the Dancing Hughs as his precision chorus line.

ha. Apparently not. A friend called me after she saw it yesterday and asked, "So what did you not get??" Milo is right. Mystery is not my thing.

Also thought it was brilliant that they got the guy from latter-day Cheers to play Hugh's lawyer, since HE LOOKS LIKE HUGH.

Except that it would be impossible to guess which night homeboy would come down to see him

Uh, and impossible to do the trick!

Only if you consider the character's desire to be the one who does the trick AND the one who gets to bow to the audience and take the applause at the end.

Otherwise, he'd just set up the trick, land on a coushin under the stage while Clone Magician was hiding in the back of the theatre. Finish the show, go get a pint, whatevs. Repeat the next night. No need to build 100 water tanks, no need to kill 100 clones.

I remember wondering the same thing! I mean, I understand I may have been a little slow on the uptake on this movie, and was wayyyy overthinking it, but you can't act like it's not confusing as hell in places.

And Grady OTM. That's exactly what I was getting at.

"Oh, he showed you!"

"Ooh, he's still alive!"

"Oooh, it's his brother!"

Etc.

Scarlet Johansson was, as ever, a quivery, trembling, non-issue from start to finish and was totally outclassed by everyone. Which is her schtick, to an extent, but it was a shame that Olivia made so little of an impact, given how crucially enmeshed she was in the elaborate lie of Borden's life.

I was very f*cking impressed by Christian Bale.

Uh, anyway. A very enjoyable movie, but one of those films where you just know the last act is going to be (a) dissapointing or (b) silly or (c) large amounts of both.

My turn to be dumb though: why DID Bale send Jackman to see Tesla?

I didn't see the Bale double thing coming at all, and was expecting there to be no explanation for the original transported man - so that redeemed it a bit for me.

Incidentally, when the wealthy backer came to see the Tesla transported man for the first time - he knew it wasn't a conjuring trick, and said it was the first time he'd seen real magic for a long time. What was that about? A reference to something in the book perhaps?

As a story, I enjoyed the Illusionist a bit more.

In terms of interesting twists and turns, I found The Prestige to be more satisfying.

The Main Event: Jessica Biel v. Scarlett Johanson

I am going back on a long period of loyalty to ScarJo, but damn if Jessica Biel didn't win me over with this movie. WOOO!

the clones thing works because it's meant to be a mirror of the natural twins thing. bale's trick was his/their total commitment to their craft, while jackman had to resort to sci-fi technology to even emulate their trick (and in the process became a way of punishing himself/reliving his wife's death).

kinda hokey, but i really enjoyed it all.

Bale = Tesla
Jackman = Edison

self x-post

however, the whether-or-not-bale-was-a-clone or twin thing is still kept kinda ambiguous, intentionally i think, to mess with the audience (after all he never out-and-out says "yes" when jackman says "twins?"). but it wouldn't make any sense, would it?

on the other hand, there is zero explanation for when/how borden would have met tesla and gotten a clone of himself made. it would have to have been before the timeline of the movie (i.e. borden's portentous "i'm the only one who can do the amazing trick i won't tell you about" in the two magicians' early, feckless days) but it's not out of the question that borden could have met him, given tesla's perambulations through europe. i prefer this kind of lack of explanation better than colossal coincidence, at least for a movie like this. i think the movie deliberately allows both interpretations and that's neat too - THAT IS the trick, really, and even if you know it you still kinda want it to be one or the other

A good film, I thought.

I chime in for all wot liked the Prestige. I throt it was grebt.

I saw The Illusionist. As chrisco says, the magic tricks were never properly explained (there was a truly half-arsed attempt right at the end), and the result was a degree of disbelief that even David Copperfield couldn't have suspended. Also, it was corny, slow and poorly acted. Nice camera work and costumes though.

Oddly I saw the Illusionist finally last night and just thought the plot was so obvious that it really undermined the attempt at a twist. So while the acting was OK, and the story was good it was told in a way that completely robbed it of any suspense. The only real joy was seeing Giametti deciding at the end that he didn't care that he had been tricked, becuase h thought Sewell's prince was a nob too. But came nowhere near the Prestige in having anything at all to say about magic, cinema or truth. Whereas The Prestige is all about the trick that is cinema, and a treatise on screen acting at the same time. (Think it is pretty much my favourite film of 2006 in retrospect).

Prestige was way better. Giamatti and Sewell were good in the Illusionist but Norton seemed anachronistic and the movie was boring. The Prestige was ridiculous and fun.

I saw the Prestige when it came out, and just saw the Illusionist the other week. NOT the right order to see them in, as the Illusionist is pretty terrible - disappointing in every way! I feel bad saying that about a film I should love (Norton, looks nice etc) but the Prestige did everything a million times better.

one word: Bowie.

two words: terrible accents

Tesla managing to build a genuine transported man device: total deus ex machina, lame but tolerable. Bale telling Jackman Tesla was the secret of the trick as a red herring - but Tesla managing to build a device anyway: total coincidence and ultra-lame.

That was the most interesting thing about the movie! (Well, one of...)

Whereas The Prestige is all about the trick that is cinema, and a treatise on screen acting at the same time. (Think it is pretty much my favourite film of 2006 in retrospect).

? Pete, Monday, December 10, 2007 6:34 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark

otm, its no coincidence that Jackman played the showman and Bale was mr. lose-yourself-in-the-role (& scarjo the hot chick who doesn't bring much else to the table)

i'm not a big nolan guy at all but holy shit i loved this. best nolan by far, and his strongest characters to boot - which is why the movie works. 25 minutes in, at the start of the scene where jackman's old lady dies, i said to myself 'oh okay, she's gonna die and he'll get revenge by framing bale for his death' - a movie with less conviction would've lost me there, because it'd be so easy to just go through the motions the rest of the way. but the movie involves you in jackman's obsession, and it employs just enough misdirection to keep you from plotting everything out in your head before it happens. plus the whole thing is just really fun and lively. the final, REAL twist totally caught me off guard, and i loved the shit out of it. i had it slightly spoiled for me that there was 'real' magic in the movie, which i think actually helped me - i could see how maybe it wouldve seemed cheap to viewers who weren't prepared.

i should start giving this guy more credit, cuz i keep going into his movies saying 'eh, not much of a fan' and end up liking them a lot. it's a very tense movie, and i loved how he made the business of magic constantly feel dangerous and difficult and frightening. i will say that it's obvious without reading the book that the source material is pretty strong, cuz i dont think the nolans could've concocted something this audacious and original on their own. that said, it was still undoubtedly a very difficult script to write.

what is UP with christian bale's accent

― 2001: a based godyssey (dayo), Sunday, October 9, 2011 9:08 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

after watching this, inception made a lot more sense

nolan is too clever for himself by a half

The people I was with seemed to think that Borden's twin was in fact a Tesla clone? It makes you wonder when Borden ever met Tesla, and how he ever had the means to do so, but it's kind of a cool idea anyway.
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Friday, November 10, 2006 2:09 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark

this is kind of interesting - puts a different slant on the ending. so bale shoots jackman, jackman furiously tries to explain that he did break all the rules (getting his hands dirty etc.) in setting up the last trick - at one point gesturing with his eyes to just look around him (presumably seeing all the dead clones in the water tanks) but bale refuses

and walks out staring straight ahead while the camera settles on the clone

but yeah as mentioned upthread I don't think you'd get the scenes of the brothers screaming at each other trying to figure it out, nor would there be an urgent need for bale to hurry downstairs and see how it was done

There's a sequel in the works, "The Turn," wherein we discover that the Hugh that Bale shot is not the last clone of Angier and the machine hasn't been destroyed. Then there's a third movie to the arc in which Angier's last clone is sent back in time by Tesla to stop the whole mess from ever happening, but he breaks his nose and turns into a drunk for some reason.
― SOME LOW END BRO (TOMBOT), Monday, October 23, 2006 9:20 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark

lollin

I'm not quite sure what I expected after Fire Walk With Me, Basquiat, Labyrinth, Last Temptation, The Hunger... jeez should I go on? Anyways, I thought Bowie was great in The Prestige.

Oh and to whoever complained upthread, his accent is 1000% better than any of Jackman/Bale/Johannson's.

unlikely to ever watch The Prestige because lol Nolan but god almighty The Illusionist is a bad film

The Prestige is everything good about Nolan. Great film. And as an example of everything good about Nolan, it also helps find the good stuff in his other, massively flawed film.

a terrible, terrible, wasteman of a director

Nah. You take the good, you take the bad.

Its hokey af but tremendous fun, which puts it somewhat out of Nolan's usual arc.

He should be forced into a noniterative plot just to see if he can make a 6/10 movie without his gimmick

I'm not that into Nolan but I thought The Prestige might be the best recent-ish Hollywood film I've seen, or sitting next to Mad Max 4.