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Hello and welcome to this programme that doesn’t seem to get a name yet. Now, based on popular votes, today we’ll be examining two movies that came out in 2006. The Illusionist and The Prestige. Now both of these period films featured stage magicians and...that’s about it. So without further ado, let’s begin!
The Magicians
Alfred Borden (The Professor) and Robert Angier (The Great Danton) vs. Eduard Abramovich (Eisenheim the Illusionist)
Now normally I would do a protagonist/antagonist thing but this is the Prestige. It’s hard to tell if there are protagonists or antagonists in that movie. And to be quite frank, I don’t think the magician in the Illusionist was that wonderful of a person. Believe me, after Fight Club, Edward Norton can do no wrong to me. But let’s see if we can get this straight. In the movie, he wants the duchess. To get her, he basically frames her future husband for her supposed murder, which drives him to suicide. Now granted this is nothing compared to the stuff both Borden and Angier did but the thing is, the Illusionist kinda made us like Abramovich, which of course is something I don’t like. What did I think of him as a character in general? Well, I think he was all right. No means is he Jake Sully but I thought the character wasn’t that grand. He didn’t seem to inspire that sense of amazement most magicians do, but when he was doing the séance tricks, he was just perfect. Calm, quiet, gently summoning spirits. That was definitely Edward Norton’s strong suit.
What’s incredibly interesting is that two magicians in The Prestige are completely different. Borden is more concerned about the method while Angier is more concerned about the showmanship and it really shows in the movie. Now what’s absolutely amazing is that both Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale had to play two kinda different characters in the movie. Jackman has to play Angier and his very drunk double and Bale plays two twins. Okay granted, at any given time one of the twins is completely silent but you notice little subtleties between both twins. I just think it’s absolutely bloody brilliant. Some people criticise Bale’s acting before but in the Prestige, I think he does a fantastic job. While there are some scenes where a little more effort towards emotion is helpful, he was still good. Jackman also did a great job, gleefully showing off his tricks but turning an incredibly dark side when required. I think I’m not alone when the morality shift occurs when Angier takes Borden’s daughter away from him and tears up his secret, leaving him to be executed the next day. At that point, we start thinking Borden as the tragic hero and Angier the flawed villain. Or whatever they are. Tough call here but I’m going to give the point to the Prestige.
The Prestige: 1
The Illusionist: 0
The Supporting Characters
Okay let’s first look at the love interest. The Illusionist had one played by Jessica Biel and well, she’s not an incredibly talented actress nor was her character particularly compelling. She was just a duchess who wanted to find true love and blah blah blah, it sounds like something from a Disney animated flick. Not really bad but it’s not a strong character to start out with and the acting is at best subpar. By contrast, the love interests in the Prestige exist simply to show the destructive paths of Angier and Borden. Piper Perabo’s character’s death sets off Angier’s quest for vengeance and Scarlett Johansson’s and Rebecca Hall’s characters are slowly driven away as the obsessions of Borden and Angier only increases. So, not a lot to go on from here.
Because the stories are rather different, the supporting characters are different. Because the Illusionist mostly ignore the technical methods of the magic tricks, it doesn’t have illusion engineers like Cutter, who is played by Michael Caine. Cutter was an unusual character, a bit of a mysterious character. We never got to know how he started out and all that. But not as mysterious as DAVID BOWIE as Nikola Tesla. He just utterly steals every scene he’s in, unless he’s sharing it with Andy Serkis. Good thing he wasn’t wearing his Goblin King costume otherwise the fangirls will spontaneously combust into flames of delight or something. Like Cutter and everyone else here, he's a bit of an enigma. The machine he develops is never really explained and it really helps with the movie. So who do we have on the Illusionist? Paul Giamatti and Rufus Sewell. They aren’t horrible actors by any means but the lines and roles they were given wasn’t that...great. Plus there were a few times where Rufus Sewell was just chewing the set, not really acting. As for the characterisation, I have a nasty feeling the whole “overthrowing the throne” was added on to the Crown Prince at the last minute to make him more evil. That was my main problem with this movie. Everyone was incredibly good or evil, no grey spaces. Inspector Uhl is all right but nothing really special. The Prestige wins.
The Prestige: 2
The Illusionist: 0
The Illusions and Effects
While the Prestige had its lovely magic tricks, I thought they were way too gritty to possess the sense of charm and illusion like they normally should. Granted, I think that was the point of the movie but a little fluff and romanticism would have been nice. Of course, the Illusionist took this and ran with it. With the rapid growing orange tree, the red hooded spectre in the mirror, the butterflies holding the handkerchief, etc. It was very magical (hahaha) and I enjoyed it for that. Point for the Illusionist.
The Prestige: 2
The Illusionist: 1
The Story
Okay well here’s the big part of the movie. The Illusionist had a very fairy tale esque story. Poor boy meets beautiful princess, wants to scr-, I mean, run off her but can’t because evil prince is in the way, poor boy becomes magicians and makes himself and beautiful princess disappear. While the Prestige had poor boy accidentally kills rich boy’s wife, rich boy gets mad and tries to kill poor boy, poor boy makes an awesome trick, rich boy wants to duplicate, almost everyone dies. If there’s anything in this world I love more (okay, excluding Natalie Portman), it’s moral ambiguity. Shades of grey and delight, ladies and gent. The thing with stories like the Illusionist is that you’re placed in a delicate position when you’re confronted by someone like Abramovich who framed an innocent Crown Prince for murder. You’re not quite sure where to stand. Meanwhile Borden’s obsession in keeping his twin a secret driving his wife to suicide is equally heinous but we’re not expected to support him. The presentation in the Prestige was absolutely beautiful. The suspense being drawn out to the nth degree. The fact that this movie was directed by the same person who directed The Dark Knight is obvious here. I’m pretty sure he used it this movie as a practice run for the presentation of the movie. I still get goosebumps as we close in on Angier’s dead body in the tank before Thom Yorke’s beautiful “Analyse” takes me away. Point goes to the Prestige and with it ,the winning crown.
The Prestige: 3
The Illusionist: 1
Now remember this is all opinion but you’re welcome to share your own. And please vote for the next round. Until then, this is Caunion signing off.
