The Prestige

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Director/writer Christopher Nolan has given us complex films (Memento, Inception, Interstellar). Here he uses the story of competing magicians in The Prestige (2006) to explore what defines one’s identity. He also uses the performers as a metaphorical vehicle to explore the magic of filmmaking, which is also an illusory art, and how far some may go to succeed in the creative process to achieve recognition, or “prestige.”

The story takes place in 19^th century England and begins with Cutter (Michael Caine) doing a voice-over that describes the three parts of a magic trick. The “pledge” introduces something ordinary. In Nolan’s case, where nothing is ordinary, he presents some intriguing events that will be explored later but for now sets us up for what is happening in the present. The “pledge” is followed by the “turn,” which is a special action, like making something disappear. Cutter says the audience wants to know how the magician did that exceptional move, but “You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled.” Cutter is talking about the willing suspension of disbelief, which is necessary to buy into stories, and which the filmmaker depends upon. The third part of the trick is the “prestige,” which, through a surprising act uses the “magic” to return things to the way they were before the start of the trick.

Nolan actually subverts these parts. His opening gives us intriguing shots he will expand upon later to lead us up to the present, which is one of three timelines in the film. The first image is of something common, a top hat, but there is a field filled with them, making it unusual. As Cutter speaks he is telling the parts of a trick to a little girl, Jess (Samantha Mahurin), which we later discover is the child of magician Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), and this scene will reappear at the end of the movie. There are shots of the other magician, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) performing his transporter trick on stage amid electrical discharges from a machine. There is a worker there who is blind – a clue. He drops through a trapdoor into a tank of water which the astounded Borden witnesses.

Nolan then transports us to a courtroom where Borden is on trial for the murder of Angier. The depiction of current events is the first timeline. Cutter, Angier’s magic trick engineer, is testifying, saying Borden placed the tank under the trapdoor to drown his competitor. Cutter is not willing to reveal the details of the “transported man” trick Angier was performing at the time of his death since it is very sought after and knowledge of the trick would render the act worthless. He reveals to the judge in private that a “wizard” invented the electrical machine which was not an illusion, but did what it appeared to do. This statement is a half-truth, as we discover, and fits in with the theme of illusion versus reality in the story. He tells the judge that magicians dress up “plain” and “sometimes brutal truths.” Like most artists, they present truth clothed in fiction. He says that the water tank joined the two men in an awful way, which we later learn.

Owens (Roger Rees), a lawyer, visits Borden in jail. He says he represents Lord Caldlow who wants to buy Borden’s version of the “transported man,” and has already purchased all of Angier’s belongings. Borden refuses, and Owens uses Jess’s fate as leverage, saying Caldlow will intervene to save her from becoming an orphan in a workhouse. He also gives Borden Angier’s diary which relates his attempt to find out about Borden’s transporting trick. Later, Fallon, Borden’s engineer, nods his confirmation that the state will put Jess in an orphan work program after Borden is hanged. Borden tells Fallon to get in touch with the lawyer, Owens, that he has reconsidered selling him his transported man trick. He hasn’t lost his skill despite the finger loss as he fools a nasty guard by securing the man in a leg chain.

The contents of the diary are the second timeline in the film. The diary tells of Angier trying to decode Borden’s notebook (we later learn how he acquired it), which needs a five-letter encrypted word reveal Borden’s illusions. Angier travels to Colorado to meet the now-renowned Tesla (David Bowie) who Angier believes helped Borden do his famous trick. (Angier is limping, and we learn of the injury further on. He also wears a hat like those in the first shot. More of Nolan’s teasers). Angier is already a known magician under the name The Great Danton. The question of what is one’s true identity enters here, as we see later that disguises are used in various ways to trick others, and of course the audience, which is part of showmanship.

As Angier reads Borden’s notebook (which is a story within a story), the movie presents the third timeline. It relates how Angier and Borden in the past worked for magician Milton (Ricky Jay), along with Cutter. Angier and Borden pretended to be members of the audience and tied the wrists and feet of Julia (Piper Parabo) in a water-escape trick (we have an echo here of Angier drowning in the water tank in the first montage). Angier kisses Julia’s leg while he puts rope around it, and Cutter divulges their relationship when he says Angier could be seen kissing his “wife.” Borden complains that Milton’s act is boring, and he thinks there should be more risky tricks like the bullet-catching bit. Cutter says that an audience member could substitute a button instead of the blank and kill someone. He also warns Borden about the type of knot that Borden uses on Julia’s wrists, which may look better but is difficult to slip off. (There is a foreshadowing here).

Cutter tests the men’s magical insight by sending them to see a Chinese magician make a large fishbowl with water and a fish appear from behind a scarf. Borden says the magician held it between his legs under his robes. He walks in a halting manner in real life to hide his deception. Again, what appears on the surface is not a true picture. Borden says the real trick is his daily performance, pretending to be handicapped. It is the Chinese magician’s devotion to his craft that Borden admires. Nolan could be saying the same about any artist committed to his work.

Angier can barely hold the fishbowl without water, and marvels as to how the Chinese magician lives his act, pretending to be a cripple. Angier has his own secret, which we get a hint of when he says he uses a fake name so his family will not know he is trying to be an entertainer. The implication is that he comes from a prestigious family who would not cherish him trying to earn a magician’s prestige. The film stresses deception in art and in life, and how they merge.

Borden reads in Angier’s diary about how Borden requires self-sacrifice in magic and comments about how Borden doesn’t understand that extreme level of sacrifice that he has undergone. We see Angier looking at a cameo of Julia when we hear these words. (Of course, Borden can’t see this fact by reading. It takes Nolan to manifest the narrative visually). The story eventually shows us why Angier speaks of personal loss.

There is a scene where Milton takes the ordinary, a bird in a cage, and slams down on it while it is covered with a drape. The cage disappears (the “turn”). He then supposedly brings back the bird from under a handkerchief (the “prestige”). A boy in the audience cries, perceiving that the original bird was killed and another took its place. His insight is confirmed by Borden disposing of the dead bird in the collapsed cage hidden in the table, while other birds in the back room await their fate. We have here a foreshadowing of Angier’s ultimate trick (which was implied by the opening scene of the film showing the numerous hats). Borden later tells the boy that “the secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything.” The suggestion is the way one uses the mystery is what’s important. Again, the same can be said of filmmaking.

Borden and the boy’s aunt, Sarah (Rebecca Hill), begin a relationship (which eventually mirrors to some degree that of Angier and Julia, as the story revolves around itself). When he walks her home, she says she can’t invite him in just then. He seems to leave, but then is inside her place asking her about what she wants in her tea. Is he that good a magician, doing his transporting man trick, or is there something else going on?

At the next performance of the water tank escape, Julia gives Borden a nod and he proceeds with tying the rope around her wrists. However, she can’t slip the bonds and she drowns. The implication is that one can go too far in one’s passion and the result is collateral damage to others. The personal loss Angier noted in his diary is obvious now, and he becomes devastated and full of wrath because of Julia’s death. Borden infuriates Angier even more by saying he doesn’t know which type of knot he used. (Nolan explored the effects of guilt and revenge in this film and in Memento, and guilt in Inception and the apocalyptic guilt that weighs on Oppenheimer).

With the death of Julia, Milton’s career is over, Borden and Angier go off to establish their own careers. Sarah meets the bearded and bespectacled Fallon. Sarah informs Borden that she is going to have a baby. He says he loves her, but she says, “not today.” She explains that “maybe today you’re more in love with magic.” Sarah seems okay with sharing Borden with his other passion, at least for now.  

Angier continues to read Borden’s notebook. He relates performing in front of a disapproving crowd. Although Borden has great tricks, he is not a showman and does not wrap the magic in an intriguing way. He gains the audience’s attention by starting the bullet-catching trick. Angier shows up in disguise and volunteers to be the shooter. He adds his own round of ammunition to the pistol and demands to know what knot did Borden tie around Julia’s hands. Again, Borden says he doesn’t know. Angier fires the pistol and maims Borden, blowing off the ends of two fingers. Borden’s words reiterate that he agonizes over what knot he tied. Angier is outraged that Borden could not know, since the man was an accomplished magician. The suggestion is that Borden may be working on an unconscious level at times, not sure what is real and what is an illusion, since his magic is so real to him because he lives it, like the Chinese magician.

Angier’s diary recounts how he hooked up with Cutter who couldn’t find work after Julia’s death. They also hired an attractive assistant, Olivia (Scarlett Johansson), whose beauty Cutter said is an effective distraction, which adds to the audience not really wanting to know what is truly happening.

Angier doesn’t want to kill birds when doing the disappearing cage trick. Cutter lectures him, saying he is not a “wizard,” and he must get his “hands dirty,” if he wants to be successful. We again have the theme of how far an artist must go to perfect his work. However, Cutter invented a contraption that collapses the cage while sparing the bird. They get a gig working for Merrit (William Morgan Shepphard). Angier attempts to do the disappearing bird trick. But a disguised Borden seeks revenge and acts as a volunteer from the audience. By mimicking Angier’s attack on himself, he sabotages the trick, killing the dove and breaking the female volunteer’s fingers. Angier’s hands have now been dirtied. Merrit terminated their run, and Angier must come up with a show-stopping performance to redeem his reputation.

By reading Borden’s diary, Angier believes that his antagonist acquired a machine from Tesla to perform his incredible trick, and he asks Alley (Andy Serkis), Tesla’s assistant, a second time to meet Tesla. Alley shows how Tesla can turn on lights without wires. Angier sees how science is magical without tricks. He goes to an alternating current demonstration where Alley argues against Edison’s attempts to “Smear” Tesla’s works (the rivalry was real). The electrical discharges jumping from conductor to conductor frighten the audience, as if they are seeing the power of a god. Angier follows Borden who also attended the demonstration. Angier’s diary says he was envious of seeing Borden with his wife and child, but he also knew that Borden tormented his family with his obsession over his magic. In a way, Borden has a split personality according to Angier. We discover that he is not far from the truth.

By this time, Olivia and Angier have become involved romantically. In Angier’s diary we learn that, in disguise, he witnesses Borden premier his “Transported Man” trick. He goes in one door of a closet at one end of the stage and comes out another door at the other end of the stage in the time it takes to bounce a rubber ball on the raised platform. Cutter says he is using a double, but Olivia noted a gloved hand on the man occupying each closet, revealing the lost fingers. Angier says he will get even with Borden by stealing his trick.

Cutter says the only way they can duplicate Borden’s act is to find a double for Angier, which they do. He is Gerald Root (also played by Jackman). He is a drunken, out-of-work actor. He says to Angier, “Did you think you were unique, Mr. Angier? I’ve been Caesar. I’ve played Faust. How hard could it possibly be to play the Great Danton?” Root as an actor assumes other identities, false fronts, to present the illusion that he is someone else. A performance in its own way is a sham to temporarily convince the audience that what they are seeing is real. Nolan is stressing the illusion versus reality aspect of the performing arts.

Angier’s team dresses up the trick and call it “The New Transported Man.” Instead of a closet they have just two door frames. But there are trapdoors at the thresholds. Angier must be the first man as he has the ability to dramatically introduce the act. Behind the open door he falls through the trapdoor onto padding below. Root emerges at the other end. He overacts his part, and even kisses Olivia. Angier is not able to experience the adulation of the crowd, and enjoy the “prestige,” since he is below the stage. They must keep Root under wraps because if he surfaces and is recognized as working for Angier, the illusion is destroyed. Angier’s life is copying that of Borden, and the two stories begin to blur together as the story unfolds.

Angier is obsessed with learning how Borden does his trick without a double so he can be the one on the stage accepting the audience’s adoration. He sends Olivia to work for Borden as a spy, but she is to tell him the truth, that Angier sent her to discover Borden’s secret of the Transported Man. Angier assumes Borden will want her as a counterspy to access Angier’s secrets. Even though Angier has become very successful, Borden’s keen eye can tell that his double is overweight and drunk. Olivia tells Borden that she is sick of Angier’s obsession with Borden, which turns out not to be too far from the truth.

Angier reads in Borden’s diary that Borden found Root and convinced him that he had the power in the act. Root then acts to subvert the performance unless he gets more money and control. Borden sabotages the act eventually by removing the padding under the trapdoor and Angier injures his leg when he falls through during one performance (remember his limp at the beginning of the film?). Instead of Root appearing through the door, it is Borden, and he tied up Root and has him descend from the ceiling with a sign that says he is Borden’s opening act. Borden has spruced up his performance by adding some of Tesla’s electronics and has Olivia for effect.

Cutter wonders if Olivia is now working for Borden since he discovered Root. It becomes very difficult to know what is a lie and what is the truth. Angier confronts Olivia with his suspicions. She says Borden uses a double since she has seen wigs, glasses and makeup about. Angier dismisses her impression, saying it’s misdirection, because Borden lives his act, the way the Chinese magician did. But sometimes the overly suspicious can no longer accept what is obviously true. Olivia gives him Borden’s notebook, and that is how Angier was able to read it (it took a while for the audience to discover this fact). Angier shows his obsession, and his downfall, as he says he only cares about Borden’s secret, not the death of his wife anymore. Both magicians let their preoccupation with their craft interfere with their attention to others. Olivia is torn, but Angier’s manipulation of her most likely is the reason she reveals that she has fallen in love with Borden.

Angier kidnaps Fallon as leverage to get Borden to explain his Transporting Man trick. He buries the man in a wooden box and when Borden shows up, Angier says Fallon wouldn’t talk, in fact, he says, “He doesn’t talk at all.” We never hear Fallon speak – another clue. Borden writes “Tesla” as the answer to how he performs his trick, and then saves Fallon by digging him up. There are a number of references to being in boxes, or cages, losing freedom and wanting to escape.

Angier wants to see what machine Borden bought and he wants a duplicate. In his diary he writes that he finally met Tesla, who dramatically enters by walking through electrical streams, looking like a modern Prometheus (the mythological reference is used by Nolan in Oppenheimer). He confirms his view of how one can achieve anything if one has the “nerve,” the courage to apply oneself. Money is also a factor, and Angier says it is not a problem. We again get an idea about his background. But, Tesla also means there is a nonmonetary “cost” resulting from obsession. Tesla admits that he is a “slave” to his own obsessions, and “one day they’ll choose to destroy” him. Angier says Tesla knows urging caution about an obsession is pointless, basically saying that an obsession triumphs over all warnings. Perhaps Nolan is implying that the drive to fulfill one’s artistic vision sometimes will not be deterred by whatever negative outcomes surface in the pursuit of that quest. Nolan, here, and in such films as Interstellar and Oppenheimer explores the fascination and fear of science.

Angier reads in the notebook as we get a scene which reveals that Olivia says to Borden that she had loved Angier but despised him for using her to steal his competitor’s secret. Borden wrote that Olivia’s loyalty was proven by not only letting him know where Root was, but also because Borden wanted her to give Angier the notebook. He was manipulating Angier by having him read it. “Tesla” was the keyword to the notebook, but not to his trick, he writes as he directly addresses Angier in the notebook. Borden thinks he’s sent Angier on a wild goose chase with Tesla, but it becomes an ironic twist in the plot.

An angry Angier confronts Tesla, saying he made the magician think that he constructed a machine for Borden so he could take Angier’s money to fight Edison. Tesla says the machine needs further experimentation. He tries using a cat as the subject of a test, but the cat is not transported. As Angier exits Tesla’s laboratory he follows the sound of a cat. He finds two cats, the original and a duplicate, as well as many reproductions of his hat (which was the first shot of the film). Tesla’s machine does not transport, it makes copies, so the uniqueness of the individual becomes dissipated.

Sarah is becoming more disenchanted with her marriage and is drinking alcohol more. Borden assures her that he loves her and Jess their child more than anything. Borden promised Jess he would take her to the zoo, yet he tells Fallon to do it and try and reassure Sarah that he loves her. We don’t see if Jess is disappointed his father doesn’t keep his promise. Borden sees Olivia who kisses him and he says he doesn’t want her to call him Freddie. Why? When she says she doesn’t trust Fallon, Borden says that Fallon protects all his interests. These are all clues as to Fallon’s true identity.

Edison’s henchmen have burned Tesla’s property, but he delivered the machine to Angier saying in a note that those interested in magic will accept it because they like to be “mystified.” Could that not also be said for us in the audience as we watch Nolan’s cinematic magic? Tesla also delivers a warning that although he has provided the goods for which Angier paid him, he tells him to destroy the machine since it will only be a source of grief. We have again the warning of going too far for one’s artistic passion. And, we see the overreaching danger of science (obviously a theme Nolan is interested in later in Oppenheimer). Borden receives this information by reading Angier’s diary. Angier’s writing addresses Borden directly (just as Borden did so in his notebook). Angier’s words say that he knows Borden awaits the death sentence for killing Angier. But, if the man is dead, how can he have written this closing? Borden tells Owens, the lawyer, that the diary is a fake, but Owens says it is in Angier’s handwriting. The theme of illusion versus reality continually surfaces, and it appears that here the diary is genuine. That would mean that Angier is not dead. Or, is he?

Sarah is unable to live in Borden’s world of lies, secrets, and tricks. She wants honesty, and he can’t do that because he puts his profession above all else. They go back and forth as to whether that day he loves her, and he admits that this day he does not. She can no longer continue in this state of imprisonment, which is like a life in a cage or a box, or a tank of water. Her escape is suicide as she hangs herself (a foreshadowing). Now both magicians have lost their wives, which shows them to have surrendered what they hold most dear because of their craft. Later, Borden tells Olivia he never loved Sarah, but only loves her. Is he a lying jerk, or is there something else going on? She says he is a cold man to be so dismissive of Sarah. She leaves, saying he and Angier deserve each other. In a way, they are psychological twins to her.

Angier reconnects with Cutter and says he wants to do the transported man to show Borden that he can do the trick without Root. Angier doesn’t want Cutter backstage and has hired blind stagehands (remember there was a blind worker at the very beginning of the film, which of course is now chronologically at the end of the tale). He wants total secrecy as to how his trick works. Angier turns on the machine for a patron, Ackerman (Edward Hibbert) Angier disappears and almost instantaneously appears at the back of the auditorium. Has Tesla perfected his invention? Borden shows up at Angier’s performance and although he saw that Angier disappeared through a trapdoor, he berates Fallon for not being able to figure out how Angier can show up fifty yards away almost instantaneously.

Borden sneaks under the stage and witnesses Angier falling through the trapdoor into a water tank that then locks. Borden tries to break the glass with an axe, but can’t save the drowning Angier. He has died as his wife did. Cutter shows up and Borden is found guilty of the murder of Angier, as has already been shown. Cutter meets with Owens and says although Lord Caldlow has purchased all the equipment, Cutter wants Tesla’s machine.

That same Lord Caldlow shows up with Jess at the prison since Borden struck a deal with Owens that he would deliver the prestige part of his tricks if he could see his daughter once more. Caldlow is Angier, and he says he “always has been.” We now know that Angier comes from an aristocratic family and that is why money was no object when it came to buying Tesla’s machine. Borden concedes that Angier no longer fears getting his “hands dirty.” Just like Borden, he is all in when it comes to his craft. Borden hands Angier the “prestige” parts of his tricks so that Jess will not be under Angier’s control. Angier is stealing what’s left of Borden’s family for himself. Angier says that Borden was the better magician, but Angier’s trick is better, so he rips up the papers. Borden shows Jess his rubber ball, the one he used in his transported man trick, and here symbolizes that he has a bit of magic left to get his daughter back. He screams that the man he was supposed to have killed is walking out the door, so he is innocent.

Cutter discovers Caldlow’s address and sees that Angier is still alive. Cutter wants the machine destroyed and Angier says it will never be used again, and will be placed with the rest of the show’s equipment. Meanwhile, Borden meets with Fallon, says he is sorry about Sarah, and throws him the rubber ball, telling him to live life for the both of them.

As Borden goes to the gallows he asks the guard, “Are you watching closely?” Is there one more trick to be played? Just before he is hanged (like Sarah, so poetic justice?), Borden says “Abracadabra!” There is a cut to the rubber ball bouncing toward Angier and a shot rings out as he is shot. The man with the pistol is Borden. Or is it? Just before his death Angier realizes that Fallon is Borden’s twin brother. His shooter reveals that they were both Borden and Fallon, sharing one life. They alternated who disappeared and reappeared in the transported man trick. The other brother sacrificed his fingers to make the illusion seem real. It was one who loved Sarah, and one who loved Olivia, so depending on who was with which woman, the truth was actually told.

Angier tells Borden the truth. Tesla did not perfect his machine. Angier used it to create a double of himself, shot the first duplicate, and drowned the other versions of himself so that there would only be one Great Danton remaining. His storage facilities have several water tanks with drowned versions of himself. As he said often in the film, “no one cares about the man in the box” and the film has repeatedly shown imprisonment and various, even lethal ways, of escape. There is always that risk for the sake of the magic. Angier paid the ultimate price, his own death, to come back in the prestige, to create wonder. Now that the show is over, the remaining duplicate Angier takes a figurative last bow. He drops a lantern, and the resulting fire destroys his secrets.

Jess walks away with her “father.” Is it Fallon, or was it Fallon who was hanged, and Borden reunites with his daughter? Nolan keeps his secret, as all good magicians do, but he brings the man back, to earn the prestige.

The next film is Europa, Europa.

Three Obscure Films

I started having film screenings for neighbors in the new development I moved into. I thought I would provide some brief comments on three somewhat obscure movies.

Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?

This 1978 film starring George Segal, Jacqueline Bisset, and Robert Morley is a load of laughs. Segal and especially Morley are very funny. It’s a whodunit, and despite the movie being a comedy, the deaths are rather gruesome. For those who like mysteries, humor, great locales, and food, this is great entertainment. One of my favorite lines (and there are many) delivered by Morey’s Max, as he wonders about the killings: “Don’t tell me another cook has been murdered! Who is it this time, Aunt Jemima?”

The Last of Sheila

Released in 1973, here is another humorous mystery that has an even darker edge to it, but is still able to be very witty. We have a great script here, filled with so many twists and turns it will make your head spin like Linda Blair. The writers are, believe it or not, Broadway musical composer Stephen Sondheim and actor Anthony Perkins, who it turns out were lovers of puzzles. They have concocted a gem here. The movie has an all-star cast including James Mason, James Coburn, Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, and Raquel Welch. Great locales in this movie, too. Herbert Ross is the director, who also gave us Play it Again, Sam, The Goodbye Girl, and The Turning Point.

3:10 to Yuma

The remake of this film (2007) may not be as famous as the original (both based on the Elmore Leonard story), but it is still pretty good. Christian Bale does an excellent job playing the Job-like farmer who has lost a foot due to friendly fire when he was a soldier, has a severely ill child, and is debt-ridden. In addition, his son has little respect for his non-aggressive ways. Bale’s character has a chance to make some money by transporting a notorious outlaw, played with charismatic bravado by Russell Crowe, who, ironically, likes to quote the Bible. His character is complicated, as he points out that those who want to hang him for his crimes are themselves guilty of atrocities but have hid behind the hypocrisy of those in power. The story focuses on whether Bale’s farmer, through his heroic actions, can prevent his son from losing his goodness in a world of lawlessness.

Recent Streaming Shows

 SPOILER ALERT! The plots will be discussed!

I thought I would provide some brief comments on shows that have turned up recently on streaming service.

The Good Nurse (Netflix)

This movie tells the story of Charles Edmund Cullen, a nurse who moved from hospital to hospital, murdering as many as four hundred patients, according to Eddie Redmayne, who plays Cullen, in an interview with Stephen Colbert. As is the case of many serial killers, he is a white male who seems harmless on the surface. He gets a job at the hospital where Amy Loughren (Jessica Chastain) works, who is the actual good nurse of the title, as opposed to the phony admirable nurse, Cullen. Even Amy, who is a single parent with a heart condition that requires a transplant, lets her guard down when Cullen is supportive of her. He keeps secret her condition so she can work long enough to get health insurance coverage for the transplant. He even helps her with taking care of her daughter, Maya (Devyn McDowell).

Redmayne is effective in presenting this complex character who genuinely seems to care about Loughren and Maya. He only reveals his anger once, in a confrontation with Loughren in a diner, which hints at the monster below the seemingly pleasant surface. Chastain is very good at showing the ailing nurse who can be vulnerable emotionally but also morally upstanding when she needs to be.

The film reveals the astonishing way that the medical system enabled Cullen to commit his crimes. Once personnel at his prior workplaces suspected he was doing away with patients, they didn’t want to be exposed as liable for hiring him and not discovering his homicidal tendencies sooner. They, like the Catholic Church concerning pedophiles, simply allowed him to transfer to other sites where he could continue his horrific acts. The medical institutions, too, presented a phony façade and the movie implies they were guilty as accessories, which, however, would be difficult to prove in a court of law without definitive evidence of the knowledge of his crimes.

It is Loughren who is the honest one, who, when she suspects, after talking with other people, that her new friend, Cullen, is culpable, helps the police eventually apprehend him. During her collaboration with the police officers, she puts herself and her child in possible danger if Cullen found out about her aiding the authorities. There is a brief exchange between Loughren and Cullen which illustrates how he was able to get away with the killings. She asks him, “Why?” he did what he did, and he says, “They didn’t stop me.”

 

The Watcher (Netflix)

Ryan Murphy, the creator of this limited series, is not known for his subtlety. Anyone who has endured his shows, such as American Horror Story or Ratched, knows he loves to shock, albeit with some style and dark humor. However, The Watcher may be one of his most restrained projects. The series is loosely based on a true story about a couple who bought a stately home in the suburbs and then started receiving threatening letters from someone who spied upon them.

In the show, the relocating couple are Dean and Nora Brannock (played by Bobby Cannavale and Naomi Watts, respectively). They have moved to the supposedly safe suburbs to escape the dangers of New York City. The irony is that the pastoral metropolitan outskirts turn out to be pretty scary. The performances of Mia Farrow, Terry Kinney (whose Jasper likes to get inside the Brannock house to ride their dumbwaiter), Margo Martindale, and Richard Kind as the weird neighbors who do not like the invading Brannocks, are weirdly funny. Dean is not a likable character since he is a deceptive person who hides his actions from Nora. The hostile and overbearing way he deals with others is disturbing. Watts does what she can with a character that is not well developed.

The show is suspenseful, and it introduces several characters who could be the watcher. It is another story where what appears on the surface is misleading. If you like a tidy ending that wraps everything up with a conclusive bow, this show is not for you.

 

Bad Sisters (Apple+)

Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe) developed this limited series, and stars as one of those bad sisters, Eva Garvey. This dark comedy/drama begins with the death of the husband of one of the sisters. The husband is John Paul (Claes Bang who brilliantly creates the character), who the sisters, except for his wife, call “The Prick.” That is an understatement. He is a vile person, who manipulates everyone and thrives on humiliating all the sisters and in the case of one sister causes her to lose an eye in a car accident. Other atrocities become apparent along the way until the end of the series. Like some politicians, he is always the victim and never accepts any responsibility for his harmful actions.

We know from the outset that the sisters are worried that they may be exposed as being responsible for John Paul’s death (his name seems to suggest the demonic version of a pope). All the sisters have reason to want the man dead. The brothers who run the secretly bankrupt life insurance company that covered John Paul investigate to show that foul play was involved. The story holds our interest, as in The Watcher, since it keeps shifting as to whom is responsible for the murder. The writing is witty, and the acting is superb in carving out the personalities of the various characters. The show implicates the audience, the way Alfred Hitchcock does in his movies, as we identify with the sisters, and become passive co-conspirators, wanting their plans for murder to be successful. As in the very serious film, Gone Baby Gone, the question here arises as to whether doing a criminal act supersedes what the law dictates when the legal system is powerless to deliver justice. The show raises the question as to whether these sisters are really “bad?”

 

The Patient (Hulu)

If there was any doubt that Steve Carell can perform in a dramatic role, this limited series makes that doubt rest in peace. Carell is excellent as psychiatrist Alan Strauss whose patient, Sam Fortner (Domhnall Gleeson in another terrific performance), turns out to be a reluctant serial killer. Fortner’s daddy issues (his father beat him repeatedly as a child) created lethal anger in Fortner toward anyone who appeared to be dismissive of him. His method of death is strangulation, which is appropriate since Fortner is stopping his condescending victim from spouting out any negativity toward him.

Strauss learns that his patient is dangerous when he awakes and realizes that Fortner kidnapped him. His patient has chained one of Strauss’s legs to a bed in the lower level of Fortner’s remote house. Fortner’s mother, Candace (Linda Edmond), lives there and she is guilty of having allowed her husband to abuse her son, and she has compounded that culpability by enabling her boy to inflict his deadly anger on others. Fortner wants to be Strauss’s only patient so the psychiatrist can cure him of his compulsion to kill. Unlike most serial killers who feel no guilt about their actions, Fortner wants to stop his deluded anger from driving him to more murders. But, he sets up a situation that shows no feeling for the threatening position in which he has placed his therapist.

Strauss appears calm and professional in Fortner’s presence, but secretly suffers in fear. He undergoes self-therapy as he has imaginary conversations with his psychiatric mentor. He experiences nightmares that emotionally connect his imprisonment to his Jewish heritage as he envisions inmates in the Nazi concentration camps. The show depicts his regret over his contentious relationship with his Jewish Orthodox son.

Fortner continues to kill until he has a breakthrough when confronting his father. But Strauss, who is at his wits end, concludes he can’t endure the situation any longer. The ending is interesting, but I believe it could have gone in several directions. If you have watched, or will watch this series, maybe ask yourself how you would have concluded this tale.

The next film is Fences.

Angel Heart

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed!

Angel Heart (1987) depicts a world bereft of goodness and morality, where evil reigns. The movie is most notable for Allan Parker’s directing that creates visceral responses through surrealistic and religious imagery and symbolism.

The initial setting is an inhospitable wintery New York in 1955. The opening shows a dirty, dark alley with smoke rising from vents which, in the context of this film, suggests the fires of hell. A dog and cat prowl the spot, making animal sounds possibly pointing to the bestial nature that exists even in a metropolitan city. There is a dead body with a blood-smeared face in the alleyway. No one is singing “New York, New York” here.

Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke), which turns out to be an ironic name (the title of the novel on which the movie is based is called Fallen Angel), is a lowly private eye with a messy office. He receives a phone call from attorney Herman Winesap (Dann Florek) to meet Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro). The last name sounds like “cipher,” which means something cryptic that needs decoding. Well, if you put the first and last names together you get what sounds like “Lucifer.” So, meeting this guy can’t be good.

Angel must go to a church in Harlem which turns out to have a funeral procession outside, an ominous scene. The place is not what one usually associates with a place of worship. Pastor John (Gerald Orange) is overtly greedy as he tells his flock to open their “wallets” and “purses” because he should not be riding in a Cadillac, because if his parishioners “love” him he should have a “Rolls Royce.” Angel meets Winesap who has a partner named Mackintosh. As IMDb points out they have names of apples, and in the Bible the apple represents temptation which brings sin into the world. (Not the only time lawyers are associated with evil. There is The Devil’s Advocate with Al Pacino as Satan. The senior partners in the TV show Angel, another deceptive title, are demons). Angel sees a woman wearing a black hood (spooky) cleaning blood off a wall. Winesap says a man committed suicide by shooting himself. What a church. Do they sing “Oh, Happy Day” here?

Angel meets Cyphre who sits on a small platform almost like he is on a throne. He wears black clothes (nothing subtle about that). He fiddles with a cane (a scepter?) His fingernails are long, a possible reference to his being a demon, and he has a pentagram ring on his finger. Be afraid, be very afraid. Winesap greets Cyphre by holding his hand, like in The Godfather or, in a different context, the way one kisses the Pope’s ring. The image is one of paying tribute to a powerful leader. There are electric fans in the room which become a motif in the movie. Cyphre wants Angel to find out if a “client,” a singer named Johnny Favorite, who was injured in the war and supposedly suffered from amnesia, was alive or dead. He received treatment at an institution. Winesap, using legal language, says that there was a contract between Cyphre and Johnny, and there was to be payment for what Cyphre supplied. If he is the devil, then one would suspect that Johnny sold his soul to achieve some fame. Cyphre suggests that he and Angel met before, which is also ominous.

Angel drives to the place that treated Johnny. He has a bunch of fake ID cards, which shows his use of deception in his work, and pulls one out for the “National institute of Health.” IMDb also mentions that Angel has several keys that would be “skeleton” keys (a deadly name). In the novel they are pass keys that can, supposedly, magically open all doors, which adds to the supernatural element in the story and fits how a private detective tries to discover secrets. He discovers that a Dr. Albert Fowler (Michael Higgins) transferred Johnny Favorite (whose real name is Liebling) out of the institution. (“Fowler” is pronounced like “Foul-er,” suggestive of one who commits foul deeds. But, as we find, chickens disturb Angel, so “fowl” works here, too).

Angel tracks the doctor down through the phone directory and breaks into the dilapidated residence. Next to a bible in a drawer is a revolver, offering up opposite images of destruction and salvation. Angel finds morphine in the refrigerator, an illegal substance to privately possess. So, when the sweaty Fowler, looking for a drug fix, comes home, Angel threatens to snitch on the doctor if he calls the cops. Angel found out that the deceptive Fowler faked a transfer to a VA hospital and took a bribe of $25,000 to release Johnny to a man named Edward Kelly and a girl while maintaining that Johnny was still hospitalized. Angel locks Fowler in his room so he can’t get at his morphine to make him desperate enough that he may remember who took Johnny. In the room is another slow-moving fan that alternately shifts its blade direction. These fans seem to announce the presence of evil or of corrupted souls.

The surreal quality of the film increases as Angel hears his name whispered as he walks down a street and he sees two nuns through a swinging church door silently praying, while what looks like blood drips into a basin near them. There is an old-fashioned elevator door opening and closing inside, too. Could these images suggest the opposites of going to heaven or hell, gaining salvation or being damned?

The camera focuses on Angel holding the key to Fowler’s bedroom, another reference to trying to discover what is happening by finding out what is hidden. When he unlocks the bedroom, it appears that the doctor killed himself with his gun, the one that Angel found in the drawer outside the bedroom. How did Fowler get it if the door was locked? Angel lights a cigarette by striking a match on the dead man’s shoe, an emotionally cold thing to do. As it turns out the bible Angel discovered was hollowed out and contained bullets. Talk about danger hidden below a benevolent surface! Angel wipes down everything to erase his fingerprints (more deception).

Angel meets Cyphre in a nice restaurant which is strangely empty. Angel tells Cyphre what he has learned about Johnny, informing him that Johnny left with his face bandaged because of an injury. Cyphre is undeterred, equating Johnny with a slug who always leaves a trail of “slime” when they leave. It is a damning metaphor, and Cyphre says it as he loudly cracks the shell of a hard-boiled egg. He convinces Angel to continue his investigation by upping his fee despite Angel worrying that he could now be a suspect in Fowler’s death. Cyphre says that in some religions “the egg is the symbol of the soul.” He asks if Angel wants an egg, but Angel declines and throws salt over his shoulder. IMDb says that superstition says that one is throwing salt into the eyes of the devil, blinding the demon. Cyphre then devours the egg staring menacingly at Angel. If this guy acts like he is eating souls then he is either the devil or thinks he is.

Apparently, the church where Angel met Cyphre harbors an evil cult because when Angel returns there he finds a dead monkey that was killed as a sacrifice and other items, such as an inverted cross. Men (probably members of Pastor John’s cult) attack Angel as he is about to confront a hooded person (the person who cleaned up the blood earlier?). He escapes to a bar and meets a woman named Connie (Elizabeth Whitcraft) who works for the New York Times. She provides Angel with information as they undress (not very romantic as there is no room for love in this world). He now has a picture of Johnny Favorite who had a fiancé named Margaret Kruzemark (Charlotte Rampling). She, along with Johnny, and other companions, practiced magic. Angel then has a series of images: soldiers celebrating in Times Square; a trellis elevator, which is what he saw at the church; a person going up a staircase; a woman’s feet; and a fan in a window (lots of fans here).

Angel tracks down Johnny’s associates and starts with Spider Simpson (Charles Gordone) who is a patient in a hospital. He tells Angel that there was a musician named Toots Sweet (Brownie McGhee) who went to New Orleans. Angel suspects that Johnny and Margaret also went there. Johnny also was intimately involved with an African American woman named Evangeline Proudfoot. She had a “spooky store” in Harlem. There was also a palm reader named Madame Zora who had a booth at Coney Island. Angel goes there and it looks desolate which fits the time of year and the tone of the film. There is a geek named Izzy (George Buck) there who says he bites the heads off rats. We are definitely in the realm of the bizarre here. He wears a nose guard but there is hardly any sun. He gives one to Angel, who puts it on. He looks scary, like he is wearing a mask, possibly showing his true nature. There is a possible reference to Chinatown where Jack Nicholson’s private detective wears a bandage over his nose after getting cut, which suggests he is following the wrong scent. Angel learns from Izzy’s wife (Judith Drake) that Zora was actually Margaret who eventually went home to Louisiana.

Angel goes to New Orleans which is the opposite of New York because it is sweltering. Angel is traveling south, possibly symbolically to hell. He notices an advertisement for M. Kruzemark, a fortune teller. He makes an appointment with her. He sees a woman who turns out to be Margaret, which is kind of magical in itself, and follows her to her place. She asks his date of birth, which is on Feb. 14, 1918. She says that she knew another born on that date and she admits that he hurt her. It’s Johnny’s birth date and he eventually tells her he is trying to get information about the singer. She abruptly ends the session, saying Johnny is dead. She quickly reads his palm on the way out telling him he wouldn’t like to know what she sees, which is a bit of foreshadowing. He notices she wears a necklace that has pentagram similar to the one Cyphre wore, which indicates her ties to the satanic realm.

Angel discovers that Johnny’s secret love, Evangeline, is dead. He goes to her grave (another Gothic element added to the story) and hides as a young woman approaches the gravesite. She has a baby and changes offerings that are on the plot, which contrasts with the Catholic cemetery setting. The girl says to her child that it is her grandmother there. Angel follows her and finds that Evangeline’s daughter’s name is Epiphany (Lisa Bonet) (an “epiphany” is usually a sudden insight into something and usually has spiritual overtones). Angel accidentally scares the child with his nose shield glasses, which adds an ominous tone to his presence. She denies knowing anything about Johnny or Toots Sweet. Angel compliments her on her beauty and she smiles, showing she might find him attractive, too. (The chickens around the yard upset Johnny and he mentioned his problem with them before. Does it have something to do with Cyphre saying eggs were symbols of the souls of people, and he has lost his?).

Angel goes to a bar where the guitar-playing Toots Sweet performs. Angel asks about Johnny, but Toots is evasive. Angel follows him into the men’s room, and Toots is now upset with Angel. He is shaken when he sees a black cloth tied around a chicken foot on the sink, an obvious witchcraft. voodoo object. A bouncer sticks the foot in Angel’s face, and he again says he has a thing about chickens before the big bouncer tosses him out of the club. Angel follows Toots to a voodoo gathering in the woods where Epiphany, while dancing, performs a blood ritual by cutting the throat of the chicken and spilling it on her. The recurrence of associating blood with ritual adds a dark supernatural feel to the story.

There is another slow-moving fan in a stairwell as Angel climbs steps, which somewhat mirrors the previous image he saw as a kind of premonition. He is following Toots. He attacks Toots who has a razor like the one Epiphany used in the previous scene, which links the two characters together. Toots cuts Angel on the face, which echoes the sacrifice scene. During the fight that follows a religious statute falls from its perch and cracks on the ground, suggestive of the fall in the Bible from religious grace. Angel takes the razor and overpowers Toots. Angel then threatens to reveal Toots presence at the ritual. Toots also has the symbol of the pentagram decorating a tooth, which links him to Epiphany and Cyphre. Toots tells Angel that Epiphany is a priestess in the cult and the chicken foot was a warning for Toots that he talks too much. The association of chickens with occult groups may be another reason why Angel basically says the only good chicken is a dead one. As he leaves Angel drops Toots’s razor and a fan stops turning as he goes. Could it mean that Angel is the source of the evil symbolized by the turning fan blades?

Angel has a nightmare where he enters a dark room. The elevator appears again. His shirt is soaked in blood. He sees a razor and picks it up and blood gushes from his hand. The same person with the dark hood sits there. As he is about to reach for the anonymous person, he wakes up. Could Angel be the one causing the bloodletting, and, thus, guilty of crimes? The scene seems to link him to the blood sacrifices. Cops wake him up because someone killed Toots. His assailant cut off his penis and stuffed it in his mouth, causing him to asphyxiate. Talk about being full of yourself. The police found Angel’s note leaving contact information with Toots. He tells the cops that he was just asking Toots for some information and tells them the lawyer he is working for. Angel touched the implement of death twice now – the gun that killed the doctor and now the razor that a killer used on Toots.

In another bar, Angel prepares to call Margaret as he looks at his reflection. Mirrors in gothic tales usually represent the other, darker side of a person. Angel gets images of himself in that elevator again and soldiers celebrating. The fan makes another appearance. These images seem to connect Angel with something sinister. And something sinister occurs in the next scene. Angel goes to Margaret’s place and finds her dead, The same ornate knife he found interesting on his first visit is the murder weapon. Someone carved out Margaret’s heart and left it on the coffee table. Those associated with Johnny Favorite are turning up dead. Again, Angel handles the implement of death. He is upset and nauseous, but still searches the premises, finding a mummified hand in a box, which resembles the chicken foot that appeared earlier, another connection to dark ritualistic practices. Angel removes his name from Margaret’s appointment list so as not to be a suspect.

The unnerved Angel passes by a church (religion is on the sideline here) and drinks in another bar that has another ominous fan. Incongruously, there is a religious statue in the window, maybe showing the desecration of the spiritual. He drives past a baptism in a nearby lake, but that religious scene contrasts with a suspicious truck following Angel’s car. Angel stops at a dock and the men from the truck unleash their dog that attacks him. One of the men says Margaret’s father, Ethan (Stocker Fontelieu), is a rich man who wants Angel to go away.

Angel meets up with Epiphany and tells her she set up Toots since she was the only one who knew Angel was looking for him; thus, she sent the chicken foot warning that Toots talks too much. Epiphany is adamant that her religious group does not kill people. She now admits that Johnny Favorite is her father, but she does not know where he is.

Angel receives a message from Cyphre who is now in New Orleans and requests that Angel meet him at a church. These two again being in a place of traditional worship adds to the theme of evil undermining Christian ideals. It is funny when of all people, Cyphre chastises Angel for using vulgar language in a church. Angel tells Cyphre about the murders and notes the strange element of religious practices present. Cyphre comments on the twisted nature of the world when he says, “There’s enough religion in the world to make men hate each other, but not enough to make them love.” Angel thinks Johnny is killing those who disliked him, and he was setting up Angel to take the blame. Cyphre says he is only interested in collecting what Johnny owes him. It is ironic that he says he has traditional beliefs, such as “an eye for an eye.” We have the devil quoting the Old Testament Bible, which darkly associates the deity with his adversary.

What follows is a dark surrealistic mixture of sex and violence referring to previous images in the film. Rain is pouring as Angel finds Epiphany near his room, which is leaking from the ceiling. Inside she says her mother thought that Johnny “was as close to true evil as she wanted to come,” but he also was a wonderful lover. Evil, which can destroy also seems to fuel the fulfillment of one’s sexual appetite here. As the two make feverish love the rainwater turns to blood. There are cuts to the hooded figure cleaning the suicide’s gore, the sacrifice of the lawyer Winesap, the elevator, and the fan. Epiphany reaches a screaming climax that sounds more violent than pleasurable. Angel gets out of the bed and punches the mirror, possibly reflecting anger at his darker, other self.

The police visit Angel, and one cop spews racial slurs after seeing Epiphany in the room. They ask questions about Margaret. The police are feeling the pressure from the dead woman’s powerful father. So, they try to squeeze Angel for answers, but he blows them off. The guys in the truck with the dog wait for Angel outside. He goes after them and chases one into a barn. The other man follows and again sets the dog after Angel, who runs off through a yard full of dreaded chickens, the objects of voodoo sacrifices.

Angel attends a sordid gathering of people skinning animals and conducting cock fights, another example of the depraved environment. He meets Margaret’s father, Ethan, who Angel now believes is the Edward Kelly who, with Margaret, took Johnny Favorite out of the medical institution. Ethan takes Johnny to where gumbo is cooking. The bubbling cauldron looks like it is boiling blood, another disturbing image. Ethan says he and his daughter left Johnny, with amnesia and a bandaged face, in Time Square on New Year’s Eve in the crowd in 1943. Ethan says he did it for Margaret’s sake because she and Johnny were delving into dark magic. Ethan says the mummified hand Angel found represents the Hand of Glory that can open all doors. This idea refers back to all the skeleton keys (another deadly reference) that Angel possesses. While Ethan talks, Angel becomes increasingly agitated, chopping at mounds of ice in Ethan’s office (The fires of hell attacking its opposite?) and he knows Ethan is more complicit than he lets on, and threatens the man. Ethan says that he introduced Margaret to Johnny, who conjured up Satan, to whom he sold his soul to become famous. Johnny then tried to cheat the devil by performing a demonic ritual which included taking the soul of his victim, the soldier, and his identity, by eating the man’s heart. Afterwards, Johnny was drafted and came back injured. Margaret hoped he would restore his memory by being in a New Year’s Eve crowd again, but instead Johnny disappeared. Ethan says that Margaret kept the unfortunate soldier’s dog tags in a vase.

After hearing this tale, Angel vomits in the bathroom, most likely because he is learning the truth about himself. He looks in the mirror, reflecting the other side of his being again, and visualizes the recurring images of the hooded person wiping blood off the wall, the fan, and the soldier in a crowd. When he exits the bathroom, Angel finds Ethan dead, his head plunged into the boiling gumbo, as fire wins over ice.

Angel bursts out of the building and runs to Margaret’s apartment. He rummages through the place and finds the dog tags that show his name, Harold Angel, on them. He is the soldier that Johnny Favorite possessed. If Epiphany (who lives up to her name in being part of Angel’s revelation) is Johnny’s daughter, then Angel in a way has committed incest. Also, Angel’s subconscious self (Johnny) killed all those associated with Johnny who helped him along the way to deny the devil his due.

On cue, Cyphre is there. He has used Angel to do his work for him. However, Angel is still in denial, saying the name Louis Cyphre is just a cheap joke reference to Lucifer. He says Cyphre killed all of the people and is using Angel as the fall guy. Angel keeps saying he knows who he is, but the opposite is true. Cyphre says Angel/Johnny was living on borrowed time, and now Angel’s soul belongs to him. As he says those words, his eyes glow. Cyphre puts on a record of “Girl of My Dreams,” the song that has been playing throughout the film and which was associated with Johnny, showing how Johnny was in Angel’s subconscious mind. Angel has flashbacks of his killing the victims.

Angel runs to where he is staying and finds the cops there next to Epiphany’s dead body, which has his dog tags around her neck, courtesy of Cyphre. Angel admits that it is his place and says that Epiphany is his daughter. Epiphany’s child is there and his eyes glow like Cyphre’s, which suggests that the devil is the father. The policeman says Angel will burn for her murder, and Angel says he knows, because his soul will suffer in the fiery pit of hell. We see that elevator going downward, suggesting his soul is descending to Lucifer’s realm.

The next film is Bound for Glory.