Obsessed with the obsessed.
The Prestige
SPOILER ALERT!!!
It seems that someone has a strange obsession with strangely obsessive people, generally the sort that become obsessed through the loss of a loved one, and I'm not naming names, Mr Nolan... But that's okay 'cos I really do l do love your work, especially Memento and now this movie.
This is such an intriguing movie. In a way the ending was quite disappointing in that, had you taken Cutter's initial advice to watch closely ("for you will be rewarded") you can pretty much work out how Angiers and Borden manage to create their illusions. But it's only disappointing in the way that a rollercoaster, with its many twists and turns, resolves itself in the end. It keeps your mind thinking, assessing how previous events fit in when it starts to become obvious that, say, Bordern is actually a twin, each living the one life. More interesting is the ongoing theme of duality, the get-your-hands-dirty magician versus the clean and classy showman, the similar rivalry between Edison and Tesla with their opposing methods of electricity transmissions (Edison's bully tactics to further his technology of direct current is almost as awful as what the magicians do to each other...), the competition between science and magic for audience attention, the rubber ball versus the top hat...
But even beyond that is the tale of two men that become increasingly obsessed by their rivalry. While one man's story is explained by relatively ordinary means (though to have one of the twins cut off their fingers to maintain their illusion is pretty startling), it is even more amazing to find that Angiers resorts to the wholly extraordinary to create his most amazing illusion. Even if you accept the possibility of using electricity to create exact duplicates of yourself, to bring yourself to killing yourself night after night is about as crazily obsessed as you can possibly get. It's still spooky for me to think about it, not to mention the mind-fuck of trying to work out which, if any, is indeed the *real* Angiers. Is he in the box or taking the applause?
Much more exciting than your typical magic show. And so very spooky.
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