Ten Years Later, Why We’re Still Obsessed With ‘The Prestige’

The Dark Knight shattered box-office records across the world and Inception captivated the public in 2010, but an unassuming tale about magicians is the Christopher Nolan film I revisit most. Ten years have passed since The Prestige debuted, and without Batman or Leonardo DiCaprio, the film hasn’t gathered the mass following of Nolan’s bigger blockbusters. Perhaps movie fans need to watch it one more time. In an interview with Film4, Christopher Nolan explained the appeal of directing The Prestige. “For me,” he said, “the fun of watching a magic trick is wanting to know; it’s being aware there’s a trick in what you’re seeing, and not quite being able to penetrate the secret.” Nolan is a magician in a way as well, misdirecting audiences and leaving them with questions that have lingered ever since The Prestige’s debut in 2006.

Despite being released in the middle of Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, The Prestige bears more tonal similarities to Nolan’s directorial debut, 1998’s Following. That film focused on a writer who randomly follows people to generate material for his books. The voyeuristic thrill excites him, but it comes at a cost; one of the men he shadows begins targeting him back. That relationship is mirrored in The Prestige and its two leads: Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). The world of turn of the 20th century magic is brutal, but rival magicians are more brutal. Obsession, secrecy, and revenge mark the years-long tension between Borden and Angier.

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Originally published at ScreenCrush.com.