The Prestige vs. The Illusionist

[Blu-Malibu2009]

Originally Posted by jhiggy23

You are completely right--the main theme of the film is obsession, and I think it portrays this theme very well.

Your last comment missed the point of what he said though. I too did not care for the characters but enjoyed the film immensely. One reason I liked The Illusionist better is that I just really liked the characters. Liking the characters is not essential to me, but in this case it propelled one film above the other, at least for me.

If the characters aren't intended to be likeable, how can that be a criticism of the film? Daniel Day-Lewis' character in There Will Be Blood is about as likeable as Hitler. But the point of the film wasn't to make the audience like his character. It was merely to study his character, perhaps to give the audience an example of how not to behave. I think the characters in The Prestige are not as loathsome as Daniel Plainview in TWBB, but at the same time they are not beacons of morality and their behavior is pretty despicable. I think The Prestige is a good warning against obsession with one's work. Look what it did to the main characters' private lives (IE marriages/relationships).