MovieChat Forums > The Prestige (2006) Discussion > Borden's split personality

Borden's split personality

posted 9 years ago by mrrockey
11 replies | jump to latest

Am I the only one who felt the foreshadowing of the twist of Borden having a twin brother was poorly handled? Throughout the film, we hear again and again from Sarah that sometimes her husband means it when he says he loves her, and other times, he doesn't. However, we never see this split part of Borden's personality at all. All we get are the characters TELLING us how strange Borden supposedly is. It made the part where Sarah says "Tell me you love me." with Borden replying "Not today, no." a little cringey for me.

I like the subtle touches at the beginning that hint at the twist, such as the opening shot of the pile of duplicate hats on the floor or how Borden seems to appear into a room out of nowhere in one scene, but the way his character was written could have been a little better in my opinion.

But I don't know, is there something I'm missing here?

Discuss...

[–] PreachCaleb 9 years ago

However, we never see this split part of Borden's personality at all.

Actually, we do. You can see in the performances. On rewatches, you can definitely see most of the time when it's one twin versus the other.

Let's be bad guys.

[–] yurenchu 9 years ago

On rewatches, you can definitely see most of the time when it's one twin versus the other.

I disagree, I'd say that most of the time we can't conclude solely from Christian Bale's performance which brother it is. For examples:

- When Borden (Al) faces Angier in the woods (in order to give him the Tesla keyword) his personality is practically similar to when Borden (Freddie) is talking to his visitors (Owens, Lord Caldlow, Fallon) while being in prison.
- When Borden (Freddie) is being dumped by Olivia in the restaurant, his personality is similar to any instances when Borden (Al) is being caring towards Sarah.
- There's no conclusive answer as to which twin brother tied the fatal knot that led to Julia's death.
- There is no consensus as to which twin brother got lectured by Cutter about the Langford Double being a dangerous knot (although personally I think it was definitely Freddie). Based on Christian Bale's performance in that scene, would you say that he's the same brother who also explained the Bullet Catch trick to Sarah, or a different brother?

That being said, I don't think the foreshadowing of Borden's secret was poorly handled.

______
Joe Satriani - "Always With Me, Always With You"
http://youtu.be/VI57QHL6ge0

[–] PreachCaleb 9 years ago

Oh, no, no. I agree. I'm not saying you can tell which twin it definitely is.

I'm saying you can tell that it is two people.

Let's be bad guys.

[–] yurenchu 9 years ago

I'm saying you can tell that it is two people.

We can tell, based on certain clues that the script or plot gives us; such as

- the fact that Borden buys a new house while Sarah remarks that just a few days ago he found it too expensive;
- the fact that Borden doesn't remember that he had promised to take Jess to the zoo;
- the fact that right after depressive Sarah says: "You love me today; that makes it so much harder when you don't.", Borden (Al) goes to Fallon (Freddie) and says "I think Sarah is beginning to suspect something." (Apparently Borden (Freddie) had never told his brother (Al) that Sarah could already sense a difference between the two brothers, years earlier when Borden (Freddie) explained the Bullet Catch trick to Sarah.)

But we can't tell from any elements in the character's personalities or the actor's performances that they are two people.

I'm not saying you can tell which twin it definitely is.

If there were clues in Borden's personalities then we could reconstruct which brother it is in almost every scene, because in some scenes the plot tells us which brother it is (those scenes could serve as "reference scenes"), and so we would only have to follow the similarities in personality. However, since there is no clear (and consistent) distinction between the personalities of the brothers (or at least I couldn't detect any in the actor's performances), it's not possible to tell (from personality/performance) in each scene if it's a different brother or the same brother compared to another scene; in other words, theoretically every scene could be "the same brother" (= one person instead of two different people).

In that regard, The Prestige is very different from a movie such as, say, Multiplicity (1996), Me, Myself & Irene (2000) or The Devil's Double (2011), in which the personality difference between two or more characters played by the same actor is very blatant and obvious in the actor's performance.

______
Joe Satriani - "Always With Me, Always With You"
http://youtu.be/VI57QHL6ge0

[–] mrrockey 9 years ago

Okay, but I don't see it in his interactions with Sarah. All we get is him sometimes acting like an *beep* and sometimes not.

[–] PreachCaleb 9 years ago

All we get is him sometimes acting like an *beep* and sometimes not.

Well there you go.

Let's be bad guys.

[–] mrrockey 9 years ago

But that's not good enough for me. Everybody acts like an *beep* from time to time. And he never gets so over-the-top that he came off as a different person either. Showing him get angry and mean sometimes doesn't so much make a split personality, as it just does a different emotional state.

[–] PreachCaleb 9 years ago

Well the movie wasn't made just for you.

And he never gets so over-the-top that he came off as a different person either.

That's the point. They're not supposed to come off as different people. But when you know the truth, you see what was happening.

Like a magic trick, you're not supposed to realize you're being fooled.

Let's be bad guys.

[–] lisa-yaeger 9 years ago

In the end, when that was revealed, I felt "Well, isn't that convenient." The first time watching, I didn't pick up on it. I just thought the clues were evidence of his cold, analytical personality. But after giving it thought in the whole of the film, and upon rewatching, I think it is a great part of the many metaphors for duplicity within the film. Unlike others, tho, I was fooled on my first viewing. i did, however, note that there was something odd about Fallon. I wondered why Borden's ingineure was not developed nearly as much Cutter. I chalked that up to Borden being so talented that Fallon was not as important to him as Cutter was to Angier.

On my second viewing, I was certain that Sarah had figured it out, but perhaps not. Maybe she was referring to the affair with Olivia.

Regardless, I am fascinated by this film like no other has fascinated me in many years.

[–] Jerique 8 years ago

Borden loved Olivia, Fallon loved Sarah. So, when Sarah says, "some days you don't mean it," it's due to the fact that she's dealing with the other brother playing the part. Having a twin brother plot twist makes the weirdness make sense.

__
Welcome to the O.C., bitch. - Luke Ward, The O.C.

[–] the-author 8 years ago

Both are borden and Fallon.
They are generally referred to as Alfred and Fredrick(Freddy)

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