nag_nag

Two magicians desperately trying to out-magic each other, end up killing each other. One of them, kills himself quite a few times.

Christian Bale(Alfred Borden) and Hugh Jackman(Robert Angier) are magicians in the making, working with Cutter(Michael Caine) learning the tricks of the trade. The most important trick is, being a good showman than a good magician. Angier masters this trick while Borden is a novice at that. Angier is happy at following Cutter's lead on what to do. Borden is bored with the same old routine tricks and wants to do something daring. He claims to have come up with 'the greatest magic trcik ever'. His obsession with trying something diffuclt ends up killing Angier's wife.

Borden starts performing alone. He performs the 'daredevil' bullet catch trick. Angier, wanting revenge tries to kill Borden by fidling with the bullet catch trick. But with the interference of Fallon, he manages to rip off Borden's two fingers. Borden inturn plays a role in Angier's show being taken off the stage.

Suddenly, out of the blue, Borden performs the 'greatest trick ever', 'The transported man'. Angier gets obsessed with the trick and badly wants to know the secret. Ends up getting fooled by Borden and sent on a wild goose chase to the United Utates. He meets Tesla (known equally for his wierd experiments and occult practices as he is for his patents and discoveries on Alternating current and electro magnetism). Tesla builds a machine which helps Angier outperform Bordens 'the transported man'.

Borden trying to get to know Angiers secret ends up killing Angier. He is sentenced to death. Borden is 'hanged'. But not before he comes to know of Angiers secret, which proves his innocence. Now Nolan(s) tries to be himself and tries to complicate the film. But he falls really short of the mark which we expect from him.

Spoiler ahead:

As the movie moves on, you keep wondering why the character 'Fallon' is so subdued. You wonder, who can this Fallon be? And before Nolan tell you who he is, you might've guessed who he is. When 'Fallon' talks to Angier about sacrifice, and how he had to sacrifice his wife, his fingers and may be a nice piece of a** in the form of Scarlett Johansson to keep 'the transported man' going, Angiers reply makes you think 'this is a director who tries to do something different with every movie of his, and has gone over the top this time and ends up being stupid'.

Fallon and Borden are identical brothers(or twins). The swap roles with ease. When one loses a couple of fingers, the other had to cut them off himself. When one does it with Rebecca Hall, the other does it with Scarlett Johansson. All the while making the world not think about two different Bordens(Fallons). This somehow leads to Rebecca committing suicide and Scarlett leaving Borden( or Fallon). When one Borden is hanged(for Angier's murder), this is the sacrifice that the other borden talks about to Angier.

The machine tesla built for Angier is a duplicating machine or a cloning maching. But you cannot know where the duplicated product will land. So Angiers transported man works this way. Angier climbs into the machine. Once the 'duplication' is over, a trap door opens and he falls into a water tub with self closing lids and drowns in it. The duplicated Angier appears from somewhere else and makes people beleive in the 'trick'. The duplicated Angier and the 'original' one are in the same state of mind. They think the same way. So getting into the machine everyday, is committing suicide everyday. This is Angier's reply to Borden's sacrifice.

All throught the movie, you can notice the similarity in the screenplay from memento. Alternating peices from two different timelines. The movie goes along well till the introduction of the 'Sci-fi' element. Then it becomes pretty much childish. It starts the way you expect a Nolan film to start. But it ends in a way, which makes me think 'Nolan under-estimated his audience with this one!'. Or if this is exactly how he wanted us (me) to understand his movie, when he meant something really different, he is really succesful at that!

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