66) The Prestige
Director: Christopher Nolan
Year: 2006
Plot Summary: A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy -- full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences. From the time that they first met as young magicians on the rise, Robert Angier and Alfred Borden were competitors. However, their friendly competition evolves into a bitter rivalry making them fierce enemies-for-life and consequently jeopardizing the lives of everyone around them.
Watching The Prestige, the story of the two rival magicians, is very much like experiencing a magic trick in itself. You're like the audience who are sat at Robert Angier's Transporting Man show, viewing a piece of work that is so full of mystery and intrigue that for the entire two hours of its running length it will puzzle you and leave you with tons of questions. Therefore, while it's not the most engaging or dramatic story, it's one that is almost impossible to look away from as you desperately search for an answer to the film's mysteries.
This puzzle is created through a clever structure that provides enough clues to help you start to piece together the corner pieces, but restricts you from seeing the full picture. The structure, in fact, is one of the most brilliant things about The Prestige. The use of flash backs and flash forwards in filmmaking is something that has become very common in cinema today, but while many other films use it as a gimmick to draw you into the plot, the placement and order of every single scene is crucial to developing the mystery and never jeopardises the movie's flow or pace.
But the mystery isn't the only engrossing thing about The Prestige - after all, even when you know the secrets it's still a great piece of cinema - because it's held together by two brilliant characters. Robert and Alfred's rivalry and how it escalates from competitiveness to jealously to obsession and eventually to violence is captivating to watch. Moreover, the minor characters in the film and how Robert and Alfred's rivalry and competition affects their lives are equally as engrossing to watch. They're all, furthermore, well acted by Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, Rebecca Hall and, surprisingly, David Bowie.
Even if the narrative doesn't grab you though - which would very much surprise me because The Prestige is utterly compelling to watch - it's also a visual treat with some brilliant cinematography, costume design and art direction that plunges you right into London during the turn of the century.
The only thing that lets the film down is when the science fiction element is brought in during the third act and the narrative deals with the idea of "real magic". That and the poor choice of song to bring us into the final credits. I love Radiohead as much as anyone reading this and Thom Yorke's song 'Analyse' is spectacular, but it's almost a century too late for this movie.
But nothing could change the fact that Nolan has crafted an intelligent, puzzling, brilliantly told mystery story here with a dramatic edge that will continue to bring you back for more and more viewings.
And, yes, I did watch this in an attempt quash my excitement for Nolan's new movie Inception on Friday. Needless to say, it failed miserably.
5/5
2 comments:
I love this film. The execution is always as thoroughly exciting as when I saw it in the cinema even though I know the unforgettable twist. Not quite good enough to be a favourite but always worth watching when I need a quick clever jolt.
Hell yes. :) Didn't get the chance to see it in cinemas which is a shame, but it's one of the films that always passes through my mind when i want to watch something clever and mind-bending. :)
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