Karnataka   

Of magic and one-upmanship

The Prestige

Director: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie

No magic trick is ever complete without the prestige, "the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you've never seen before," as Cutter (Michael Caine) explains it. And so it is that Christopher Nolan's The Prestige is an elegant, tightly crafted testimony to the "Aha!" moment that follows a fine piece of misdirection.

But as many plot twists as Nolan (he of Memento and the boldest, finest Batman effort Batman Begins) brings to the screen, what makes his roughly two-hour magic trick so special is the way it so cleverly hides the most obvious truths.

A rivalry is born between magicians Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) when Borden's mistake kills the former's wife in a trick gone wrong.

Revenge is soon overshadowed by an obsession for one-upmanship in the face of which, all else, including the love of a charming wife played by Rebecca Hall and a beautiful assistant in the form of Scarlett Johansson, fade into insignificance. As both men turn to science, whose visible, sympathetic face is Tesla (David Bowie), Nolan gives context to their rivalry in the form of another suggested battle for science between Tesla and off-screen spectre of Thomas Alva Edison.

This ingenious film might not have been possible without the excellent chemistry between Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale.

Rakesh Mehar

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