Ixcaliber watches films - Printable Version

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SpoilerAs many reviewers have proven time and time again it is a hell of a lot easier to write an entertaining review of something that is objectively bad, which is why I don’t anticipate this review being all that great of a read. Aside from the fact that I enjoyed this film, I also have an issue with faces and telling people apart. This, combined with an anachronological storyline told through flashbacks within flashbacks made this film a little tricky for me to follow at times. Essentially if you wanted to summarize this film in one line you would say that it is about the rivalry between two magicians Alfred Borden and the Great Danton; Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman respectively. This is something of an oversimplification of course. There is another level of interest, in how each of the magicians perform their own versions of The Transported Man. I must confess that for most of the film I sort of assumed that Christian Bale was in fact a genuine wizard and this was how he performed the trick. This is because I am dumb. The real solution is far more satisfying and says something about each of the characters.

I’m going to assume you have seen the film, I did write rather a lengthy summary of the film, but it seemed sort of pointless when you are much better served by going and watching the film yourself. If you have not seen the film you are advised to leave as I am dealing in heavy spoilers here.

So Danton’s secret is the closest thing to actual magic, the fact that it is dressed up as science and that it has a rather dark caveat attached to it does not mean that it is anything of the sort. In summary he has a machine that when he enters it, it causes a second Danton to be created some distance away. The actual mechanics of how it works, whether it is a transporter that for some reason leaves a copy behind, or whether it is simply a cloning device, is not made clear. At the end Danton says that every time he is relieved to discover he is the one that is transported, but this means next to nothing. A clone of him would still have his memories and would believe that he was not freshly created. In reality it seems to me at least that every night Danton killed himself, and somehow did not realize that this was what he was doing. This is very dark and as is demonstrated by Borden’s far more mundane secret, is completely unnecessary after he has one clone of himself. With this he proves himself to be very selfish, he does not mind that a version of him drowns every single night, because he gets the applause that he so desperately wants. This is of course to say nothing of him using the trick to frame Borden and therein attempt to extort the true secret of the Transported Man by holding his daughter ransom.

Borden’s secret, that he and his assistant Fallon, are twins living one life is on the surface less dark. Without any real thought it may seem as though Borden/Fallon are the more sympathetic characters here. Danton was an arse undoubtedly. He did some pretty awful things but for the most part he did them for very human reasons. It all kicked off with the death of his wife and gradually got worse from there. His vendetta against Borden was borne from pain or pride or whatever. I would argue that Borden/Fallon were worse or at least just as bad. They drove a woman to suicide and not because they wanted to, one of them was in love with her after all, they did so simply because they refused to let down the act. They kept up the pretence that they were one person long after they should have revealed the truth, at least to their loved ones. Their dedication to their secret was almost inhuman, and the purpose of their secret; so that they would be famous. They were not as out and out bastardly as Danton turned out to be in the end, but their coldness means for me that they could not be deemed any more sympathetic than he was.

The opening scene I found to be particularly good. It explained the nature of how magic is done, while at the same time being something a trick in of itself. It showed images of Michael Caine entertaining Borden’s daughter with magic and of Borden discovering Danton drowning in a water tank. It was a pair of pledges and turns, which were cleverly lacking in their prestiges. The moment where Lord Caldwell is revealed to be Danton, and where Fallon/Borden returns to his daughter after killing Danton, they are the reveals building from these specific moments.

I did find that the whole I am reading a journal about a man reading a journal thing was a little difficult to follow at first, and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that this was directed by Christopher Nolan who went on to write Inception (I am having a dream about having a dream about having a dream about a heist movie). What I also thought was clever was how the journals were used. They were not merely framing devices to tell the story, though they did that. Each one was a trick played upon one of the magicians by the other. The theme of magic is not just present in what is being told but how the story is being told and that is very clever.

All in all I found this movie to be really great and I think it might merit a rewatch to see all of the clues and hints that were dropped about Fallon/Borden.