The Prestige

Highly Underrated Nolan movie

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source: The Prestige

The Prestige

After seeing that this film is in the IMDb top 100, I thought it was a film I must see. Now that I've seen it, I feel a bit disappointed. Now I must admit that the film was terribly original and had some odd twists, though the film overall is awfully grim and lifeless--mostly because it was hard connecting with the characters. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman play magicians who are partners. Things go very well for a while until Jackman's wife is accidentally killed doing a dangerous trick. Jackman blames Bale for this and you really can't tell if Bale did anything wrong or if it was just a sad tragedy. Regardless, Jackman spends the rest of the film persecuting Bale and trying to destroy him. After a while, Bale begins fighting back and it's an all-out war with horrible consequences. I won't say more--because I don't want to spoil the film. However, I will say that it gets really, really, really weird when Nicola Tesla (played very well by David Bowie) enters the fray--creating the ultimate magical box for Jackman. Aside from the magic box being ridiculously anachronistic, the film is so slow and hard to love--despite it's wonderful twists. It's hard to like either of the magicians (particularly Jackman) and after a while I lost interest--mostly because of the pacing and disagreeable characters. Overall, I greatly respect the film but also didn't particularly enjoy watching it.

Like memento, here we have a relative simple story which by telling it either backward or through bits and pieces is supposed to become interesting. On the whole of course that never works for those with an imagination larger than that of an amoeba or for those that have seen the formulaic twist in already way too many predecessors. In the case of Prestige, to my surprise, there wasn't even a twist to speak of which really didn't matter much because the movie became drying paint already so much earlier, albeit in a nice shade of the colour blue. The story of Prestige is practically non-existent. But by telling it by means of flashbacks, tiresomely revealing spoon-fed bits of it, the plot and intrigue unfolds. Fast paced editing to throw in some confusion for good measure and some fake beards and fancy dress-up to, i guess, try to confuse the viewer on who was who and more importantly; when. Yet, as more and more of the story unravels, the more obvious it becomes that there isn't a story but more a collection of dreary facts. In the "Usual Suspects" for example, there was actually a compelling story unraveling while the writers worked their way towards the twist. Prestige only had some repetitive drama and therefore relied soly on the twist itself. Alas, many spotted the twist some 10 minutes into the film and it was hardly an earth-shattering twist anyway. I found no chemistry between the key-players and Bale and Jackman just lack any charisma whatsoever in their role (the keyword is magical showmenship, something they both lacked) and are therefore miscasted. Think i'm being harsh? Imagine either one of them playing the role of Eisenheim or Leopold, both charismatic characters/actors in The Illusionist.. I rest my case... The performances in Prestige were on par but the script was just too monotonous on too many occasions. On an even more annoyed note: Bowie was unrecognizable, Johanssen reduced to the human equivalent of a tittybar and Sir Cain to be honest, failed to impress but may have done this on purpose as a lesson learned from his literally outstanding performance in Children of Men. Another highly overrated film from 2006 in which his performance painfully made the acting of practically anyone else a complete joke. The cinematography in Prestige, though suiting the story and time in which it was set, was relentlessly dark which really was eye-candy but on the other hand didn't help the many plodding and derivative scenes. The only thing that made the movie endurable was the fine female company I was with, which provided the necessary distraction which made me miss some key-scenes which offered a bit of challenge to work it all out. I guess Nolan just isn't my kind of storyteller and his rather one-tracked stories not my cup of tea. 4/10

I've seen this film twice now - about a year ago and then yesterday - and thoroughly enjoyed it both times, even the second time when I remembered some of those fantastic twists in the last half hour. Sometimes it's even more fun to view a film like this when you know a few things, because earlier scenes take on new meaning. It's not an easy film to totally digest, even with two viewings, because that ending has some mind-boggling revelations. Without having to resort to spoilers, let me just say the story is extremely interesting, the acting very good, the period pieces fun to view and it's a pretty clean movie so grandma can also enjoy it, too, without language or sex concerns. Basically, it's a story about obsession between two magicians in the last decade of the 19th century. They continually try to top one another and things get nasty along the way. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are both fun to watch in those roles, as are Michael Caine and Scarlett Johansson in supporting roles. This is one movie guaranteed to have you thinking about it when it's over!

Great movie with Great actors writers and twists. Something that i didn't see anybody said about it that rivalry between two magicians is reference to Tesla and Edison's rivalry. In the beginning they worked together, then became opponents. I think Borden is Tesla cause he always was more talented than Angier (Edison) who stole Borden's idea. Surely on of the best movies in this century, be sure to watch it more than one time.

I love a film that doesn't spoonfeed the plot and the story and the interest in it to the audience. This one takes you along if you are smart enough to go and if you are not so dumbed down by most entertainment that you can stay steadily involved. I wanted to love it to death...it has everything I think a film should have, including a wonderfully rich atmosphere, a great cast and excellent direction. Through most of it, it dares the audience to be intelligent and to have an attention span longer than a fruit fly. It had all the makings of a great film, but I kept looking for (and longing for) the greatness to impact me. It never did. It fell flat for me by the end. I really didn't care about any of them by then. I wasn't even sure I cared about the little girl. I certainly didn't care how anyone did any of the illusions; I was sick to death of their obsession with each other and just wanted them to move on already. Although there would be no film without it, it all seemed to be 'too much trouble to go through' and obsession is about getting caught up in it...for me, I couldn't get caught up in itnor could I quite get their obsession. Although Iam a big fan of the long, thinking person's film, I have to say I thought it dragged on and on by the end and I just wanted it over. It definitely did not leave me wanting more. I just wanted different. I had paid attention all along, I was impressed with the film and thought the acting, the cinematography and the direction were all superb. Even though some of the twists seem unnecessary, I thought many were brilliant and I kept trying to will myself to care about it, to care about them, but I didn't. It was a very good film in a detached sort of "viewing art" way but as far as feeling "wow"'d by the end, not so much.