Christian Blake, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Rated PG-13
Director Christopher Nolan is beginning to build quite a body of work for himself. While Memento wasn’t his first film, it did manage to put him on the map as a director to watch. He followed it up with Insomnia, Batman Begins and now The Prestige.
All of Nolan’s films are cerebral thrillers in which either the characters, audience or both are psychologically meddled with. The story of The Prestige is as intriguing as H. G. Well’s “The Time Machine,” and reminds me a lot of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” bringing back the horror part of science fiction. Unfortunately, the film isn’t as well executed as Nolan’s others.
“Every great magic trick consists of three acts. The first act is called The Pledge?the magician shows you something ordinary, but of course, it probably isn’t. The second act is called The Turn?the magician makes this ordinary something do something extraordinary; now you’re looking for the secret, but you won’t find it. That’s why there’s a third act called The Prestige?this is the part where there’re twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance and you see something shocking you’ve never seen before,” says Harry Cutter (Caine).
It’s quite extraordinary that the film manages to be broken up into its three acts so that the first act is The Pledge, the second act is The Turn and the third act is The Prestige. Scenes are broken up here and there, and intercut together, revealing just the pieces of information needed at first. Later those scenes are finished out and put into context, making a lot more sense by the end. However, a big shortcoming of this strategy is that the ending isn’t a surprise. It is given away too early?around the time of The Turn?leaving a predictable and lackluster conclusion to an otherwise seamless piece of work.
Based on the 1995 novel by Christopher Priest, and adapted for the screen by Nolan and his brother Jonathan, the film tells of two magicians?Rupert Angier (Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Bale)?living in London towards the end of the 19th Century.
The two friends are helped by Cutter, a man who designs and sets up illusions. Things are going well for the two, until Borden becomes unsatisfied with the lackluster set of tricks being performed. Trying to make things a little more interesting, Borden alters a trick to make it harder, but by doing this he jeopardizes everything, sending the two magicians down separate paths.
Each come to value their work above all else, putting their relationships aside to beat the other for world acclaim. But, how far is each willing to go? “You’re a magician not a wizard; you’ve got to get your hands dirty if you want to do the impossible,” says Cutter. Which one is willing to do this?
The first half of the film is first rate, but after The Turn things tail off. This forces the audience to wait impatiently while things are set up for The Prestige, which ends up not being that prestigious, since the secrets have already been indirectly revealed. However, the acting keeps the science fiction believable, and if nothing else it delivers on an entertainment level.
