Fri 3 Nov 2006
The Prestige
By Ian Forbes
[3] Comments
David Bowie should play Lord Raiden in the next “Mortal Kombat” film.
NOMINEE:
Adapted Screenplay (Jonathan Nolan & Christopher Nolan-screenplay, Christopher Priest-novel)
Cinematography (Wally Pfister)
Score (David Julyan)
Film Editing (Lee Smith)
Art Direction (Kevin Kavanaugh & Julie Ochipinti)
Theatrical Release Date: 10/20/2006
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine
Are you reading closely?
Abracadabra.
“The Prestige” pits Batman versus Wolverine in a massive comic book phenomenon not seen since “The Death of Superman”.
What? That’s not what this is about? Oops, my bad.
Geek fantasies aside, but still using my trademark metaphors, “The Prestige” is the Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles of film. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are two tastes you don’t intuitively put together but it actually works.
Mmmm …. chicken and waffles …. Mmmm.
The film reunites Bale with “Batman Begins” co-star Michael Caine and director Christopher Nolan. Nolan is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors, having also done the excellent “Memento”.
He’s smart to work with good actors, use excellent scored music (this time by David Julyan who also did the score for “Memento”), take a good script and create an atmosphere that is suited to those elements.
In “The Prestige”, Bale and Jackman play rival magicians. Their feud is vindictive and brutal, all stemming from their time working together as they rose to prominence in the field with the help of Caine as a show promoter.
Bale has long been a favorite of mine and he continues to bring his A-game to just about everything he does.
There’s a devious and shrewd aura about him in the film that is counter played quite nicely by Jackman’s more theatrical and showy repertoire.
Initially, I thought Jackman might be the weak link to the film but Nolan once again proves that unlikely casting choices can pay off.
Obviously, the appeal of the film is that there is a mystery to be unraveled, and like the secret of a magic trick, I won’t do much discussion to that end. You know enough about the film from my brief setup and probably too much from seeing the trailer anyway.
On the plus side, whereas I’m usually pretty good at figuring out an ending, I thought I had “The Prestige” figured out about halfway through and then Nolan and company went another direction and it took me another 30 minutes or so to get the right ending figured out.
That being said, while the details shouldn’t be divulged, be prepared for a well though out and executed story with good acting, music and production.
The supporting cast of Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie and Andy Serkis are all key elements and do an excellent job. There’s also a nice small role for real magician / actor Ricky Jay. He apparently helped Bale and Jackman with their sleight of hand techniques as well.
The long and the short of it is that if you want a great ride of a film, “The Prestige” is just the ticket. In the battle of 2006 magician movies, this beats “The Illusionist” hands down in entertainment value.
I’m giving it a 4 out of 5 and I can’t wait to see it again to watch it from start to end knowing what I do now.
It’s not quite in the league of something like “The Usual Suspects” but I was nearly as entertained.
Now in Theaters
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June 14th, 2007 at 7:07 am
I liked this film a lot, but after watching it again I realized a logical fallacy. Of course to do this requires me revealing spoilers, but the movie has been out for a year, and is on DVD, so I won’t feel too guilty about doing that now. SO here it is:
SPOILER WARNING
Anyway, the story revolves around an impossible trick: the teleporting man. The magician walks into a door and then appears somewhere else only moments later. Bales character does this by having a TWIN BROTHER. So he walks in the door and his twin walks out the other one. TA DA!!! But Hugh Jackman’s Character can’t figure it out. So he commission’s Nikolai Tesla to build a machine to teleport him. The unintended consequence is that the machine, instead of teleporting someone or something, merely makes an exact replica appear far away. Of course when Wolverine gets in the machine, another Wolverine appears. The original then precedes to put on a # of shows where one of the extra Jackman’s die. This makes no sense, because once he copied himself once, Wolverine could do the trick the exact same way as Batman because he technically had a twin. He wouldn’t have to go through the mess of having to clean up a dead Wolverine after every performance. These things make me mad.
Also, as I was watching this movie I accidentally fell in love a little bit with Scarlett Johannsen, she is just that beautiful. When she told Wolverine that she had left him for Batman, it made me sad and angry, like she had broke up with me personally. SCARLETT, YOU BITCH, HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH A THING??? Then I realized that this was just a movie. But I still felt a little hurt.
October 6th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
>> The original then precedes to put on a # of shows where one of the extra Jackman’s die. This makes no sense, because once he copied himself once, Wolverine could do the trick the exact same way as Batman because he technically had a twin.
October 7th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
The original then precedes to put on a # of shows where one of the extra Jackman’s die. This makes no sense, because once he copied himself once, Wolverine could do the trick the exact same way as Batman because he technically had a twin.