Obsession and a compulsive lifestyle are not based merely in eccentric, quirky behavior. True obsessive and compulsive behavior is based in how pervasive a thought or action becomes in our lives. Want something badly, yet can control your desire so that you can function typically on a daily basis? You're just pining for something, my friend. Does everything else--including family members, relationships, careers and your own safety--take a back seat to something you've been intently focused on for years?
You got the OCD. Bad.
The Prestige is a movie about two illusionist in turn-of-the-century England, both of whom apprentice with a master magician before becoming headliners--and rivals--themselves. Christian Bale's Alfred Borden is a technical marvel who lacks showmanship, while Hugh Jackman's Robert Algier is all style with little substance. Borden and Algiers are two sides of the same coin: together their skills would make them a master performer, but separately they are less than either of them ever expected to be. The men become obsessed with outdoing the other. They become petty, as a result, and each becomes insanely jealous of the success of the other.
Their jealously ultimately consumes them.
Directed by Christopher Nolan (and written by Nolan and his brother Jonathon) The Prestige keeps the audience looking at the top hat. We know the damn rabbit is gonna pop out, it's just a matter of when. And if we keep watchin', we can figure out how the trick works. Nolan's success, though, is in making the audience forget that the real trick isn't the rabbit and the top hat.
It's what goes on below the table on which the hat rests.
Although we never take our eyes off the hat, the rabbit always appears. In dramatic fashion, and in a way that makes one wonder if magic really can exist.
Just like The Prestige.
4 comments:
I haven't seen the movie, but I read the book (which was excellent). Good post.
I really wish I'd have seen this with someone at the theater, because I was dying to discuss what actually happens at the end of the movie. I didn't blog about it at the time, either, because I was afraid of giving away spoilers. (I should've handled it like you, TFG!)
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the DVD release, so I can look at this movie more closely.
Yep, the actual ending--or what one thinks is the actual ending!-- is a terrific discussion. My wife and I spent at least 20 minutes afterwards comparing notes. It was a very, very good movie.
It was a very cool ending! Offroute (or "Route" now I suppose) will have to fill us in on whether the ending of the movie jives with the book as I've read that it doesn't.
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