The Prestige Review

By: DarkJedi
Date: Thursday, October 26, 2006

*********** SPOILERS WARNING: If you haven't seen it and don't want to be spoiled, back out of this review*******************




I saw this yesterday. We were going to take my father to see "The Departed" but he's not the same type of movie watcher as we are and he's recovering from a stroke we questioned whether he would be able to sit down for 2:50 minutes of the film. I'm still going to watch The Departed soon but yesterday was not the day because of those circumstances.

Instead, we opted for "The Prestige" starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. Other then seeing the advertisments and the many banners across the web, I didn't really know about this film. I thought from the previews that it would be about Houdini(a well known Magician of his time) but it turned out a tad bit different then from those expectations. Soo, we buy our tickets and head on into the theatre getting my usual coke and Peanut M&Ms, grab our seats and begin.

The previews were alright but not spectacular. I'm reminded of a recent Dane Cook's reenactment of the movie trailer experience from one of this shows. The previews gives the audience a right to review the upcoming movie off a miny trailer in terms of "That's gonna suck!" or "I'm totally there!". The only preview that caught my attention was Deja Vu(ANOTHER film with Tony Scott & Denzel Washington working together) but even then I wasn't sure I'm going to go see Deja Vu. I mean, I know alot of people who despise his films for his crazy edits but I still liked Man on Fire and Crimson Tide. Deja Vu though just by it's previews looked like an editing form that might really bother me this time. I may just wait for dvd on it but who knows. Also watched the trailer for Mel Gibson's Apocolypto but I wasn't sure what I thought about it.

I was REALLY wishing for the big screen trailer of 300. I've only seen it on the web so I was hoping it'd be attached to this movie but of course, just a bunch of Touchstone distributed trailers was with this film

Movie begins...

The film starts off with our characters being "marks" in the audience for magician who plays on the safer side and who's acts are universal while still having some level of caution in them..the water tank trick for instance. Anyway, I was intrigued by the beginning of the film and I found myself surprised that it had nothing to do with Houdini. These were just competing magicians starting out. It starts off early with the death of Jackman's love of which Nolan the director begins to confuse me and the audience. Who's the bad guy here? That was my question throughout the first hour of the film because Bale looks to be more devious at first.

However, while the movie goes forward, I began to hate Jackman's character with a freaking passion. I couldn't understand why Nolan was focusing on him more then Bale. Jackman's Angier may have been a top notch performer but in essence, he was still a hack. Not only that but he couldn't see through his own obsessions which of course was pointed out by other characters througout. It started out as "revenge" for Julia but it became quite clear that Jackman just wanted to steal secrets about the trade and the revenge factor was just a coverup. Besides which, as an audience member, I recognized the fact that Piper Perabo's Julia was the one who nodded her head at the beginning when Bale asked her if the knot was okay to do. Jackman's sending Johansson's Olivia to Bale's side hammers down the point that "love" was never a big deal with him. It was about his career.

By the hour mark, I was seriously wishing for death for Jackman's Angier character. Dude was an insufferable prick. I'm not saying Jackman did a bad job in the film. In point of fact, I was surprised as how good Jackman acted in this film. I keep forgetting that he has done serious acting roles in his career on Broadway. It's easy to forget with the Xmen series so fresh in my mind but as far as acting is concerned, Jackman showed his range of skills as Angier in this one. He was great at playing the shady Angier and since the more screentime was focused on him, he had quite alot to pull off. I also have to admit by the hour mark, my focus as an audience member was getting rather confused. We have Jackman's character being an prick and we have Bale's scenes being rather confusing to bear as well along with his double personalities. Nolan kept on giving us his "two loves" for Bale's character so it was hard to work out who to really root for here.

My attention was waning from bout the hour mark to the 1:30 mark but by that time, I had made up my mind. I was rooting for Bale's Alfred Borden character all the way from that point onward. By now, Jackman's Angier was truly on my freaking last nerve.

By the way, it took quite a bit of time before I picked up on Tesla being that of 80's poprock fame David Bowie. He looked so ruddy old and normal, it was hard making the connection. I picked up on his assistant being the dude who played Gollum right away though. They both did as good a job as could be for relatively minor roles in this one. Bowie's performance threw me for a loop in the same way Rourke did for me from his Big Marv character in Sin City.

With the film leading to the climax and the antagonist now not in question for me, I sat there waiting for some of the earlier confusion riddled moments to click. I wasn't dissapointed either. The reveal of his twin made quite alot of the pieces fit together FINALLY. It fits perfectly with Borden's admiration of the Chinese Magician earlier in the film. How his dedication of the craft was shown in just how much sacrifice he made of real life (crippling walk). Having Borden given that foreshadowing of his own secret makes perfect sense. Also, of course his wife constantly saying "Your face says your lying today on the 'I love you' " sub-plot between them both. Some days, it was him and somedays it wasn't. Caine's Cutter character, I bet, knew about this twin the whole time but as a man who loves the trade of magic, he wasn't going to reveal it....even to Angier. Angier's obsession indeed did him in at the climax just as Tesla said it would. Angier would have been nothing of a BIGGER hack then he already was if not for the friends around him...mainly Cutter. Once Cutter saw just how evil Angier was, it didn't take long for him to make the choice of right vs wrong. That was Angier's grave already dug by past deeds. Just when he thought he was free and clear, his conquering of the feud really turned into his doom. The circle complete.

Another quality movie from Christopher Nolan in my viewpoint. Memento, Batman Begins, and now The Prestige shows me that Nolan is to be trusted. This movie may not have been action packed or what I expected from what trailers I saw but the quality of storytelling and the actor's individual performances make it very decent. There were lulls in the film but the audience was rewarded for being patient, IMO. The only criticism I would have of it other then the brief lulls is the basis of Tesla's machine defying physics and the whole multiplying "twist". That and a lull of interest at the halfway mark is why I won't vote this movie a 10 out of 10 but %$#@ if it's not still one at least a 8 or 9 in my mind. Great acting performances out of Jackman, Bale, Caine, and Johansson. Quality storytelling from Nolan.

Click here to read the staff review by Mania.