|
"The Prestige" movie review |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Written by By Steven Rea, MCT
|
|
Friday, 20 October 2006 |
|
|
|
|
 THE PRESTIGE
2 stars
Produced by Emma Thomas, Aaron Ryder and Christopher Nolan, directed by Christopher Nolan, written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, based on the novel by Christopher Priest, photography by Wally Pfister, music by David Julyan, distributed by Touchstone Pictures.
Running time: 2 hours, 10 mins.
Robert Angier/Hugh Jackman/Alfred Borden/Christian Bale/Cutter/Michael Caine
Olivia/Scarlett Johansson/Nikola Testa/David Bowie
Parent's guide: PG-13 (violence, sex, adult themes)
"Every great magic trick has three acts," croaks a Cockneyed-up Michael Caine in the opening voice-over of "The Prestige" — a title that refers to the big third-act payoff, the proverbial rabbit plucked from the master magician's hat.
Most every great screenplay has three acts, too. But so do a lot of messed-up scripts, and siblings Jonathan and Christopher Nolan's adaptation of this novel by Christopher Priest offers three acts of exasperating muddle.
 Like "The Illusionist," the more successful, less grandiose movie about late-19th-century practitioners of the magic arts, "The Prestige" is set in a Europe (London, versus "The Illusionist's" Vienna) of horse-drawn hansoms and cobblestoned mews, of gas lanterns and gilded music halls. You expect Sherlock Holmes to turn the corner at the next street, and actually, that wouldn't have been a bad idea. Maybe he could have solved this puzzle.
"The Prestige," which was directed by Christopher Nolan — of "Memento," "Insomnia" and "Batman Begins" — traces the trajectories of dueling magicians Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale).
As young apprentices, the men worked side by side (as ringers in the crowd) for an old conjurer, but a dreadful onstage accident involving the magician's beautiful assistant (Piper Perabo) — who also happened to be Angier's wife — scotched the friendship.
For the rest of their lives, each is obsessed with exposing the other's secrets, destroying the other's career, the other's life.
But Jackman, playing Angier with an oversize American accent, and Bale, doing Borden as a working-class Brit, get lost in the plot's multiple convolutions. Designed to keep the audience guessing until the very last twist, the story, instead, gets cinched in its own straightjacket of aren't-we-clever?-ness _ like an escape artist bound in chains and locked in a box, only to discover that he can't extricate himself from the trap.
Caine, as a foxy old "ingeneur" — a designer of elaborate contraptions to aid in the magicians' deceptions — putters around on the periphery, occasionally showing up to say, or do, something significant.
Scarlett Johansson, on the other hand, has nothing to do but vamp cartoonishly in silly Victorian showgirl attire; the actress, whose self-parodic sexpot pouts and poses adorn the cover and inside pages of the current Esquire ("The Sexiest Woman Alive!"), is fast becoming a joke. In "The Prestige," she signs on as Angier's assistant, and lover, only to find herself shunted off to spy on Borden. Of course, she becomes his lover, too.
(And wasn't Johansson already a magician's assistant this summer — in Woody Allen's "Scoop"? One magician's assistant per year per actress, I say.)
A side trip to the mountains of Colorado, where the famous (and real-life) inventor Nikola Tesla is working on his coils and constructs, is "The Prestige's" big piece of misdirection. David Bowie plays the scientist with a simmering mad energy, and Andy Serkis is his sycophantic sidekick. It is Angier who has come here, to learn the secrets behind "The Transported Man" machine that Tesla was said to have designed for arch-nemesis Borden.
There's a nifty shot of a mess of top hats strewn in the woods that may or may not be the key to what Tesla was up to. But the image, for all its poetry, doesn't explain what director Nolan was up to in "The Prestige," apart from some clunky cinematic sleight-of-hand. | |
HEY F**K YOU!
Written by FullMetal Alchemist on 2006-10-24 07:08:32
BRILLIANT movie. Don't trash it because you didn't get it.
Taking notes from that rag Esquire eh? Guess I shouldn't be suprised. wouldn't know good dialoge if it came up and shot you in the face! |
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. |
|
|  | "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only truth." | |
|  | We're not that bright, even though in our own little world, we're geniuses. We like 80s hair bands and one-hit wonders, but among us we have respectable tastes, too. Metallica, Iron Maiden, U2. Pursuit of all things trivial is a lifestyle, not just a game. We like some sports, love other sports, and can find something to say about anything. We watch TV and movies and we've read a book or two, even a few classics (Yes, Classic Comics count!)
We call it insight, you call it what you will. | |
|  | Felix Wong is an outdoor enthusiast living in Fort Collins. A mechanical engineer by day, he is especially passionate about bicycling, running, and backpacking. | |
|  | Hola Amigos! I'm Sandra. I like to believe that people are 70 percent good and 30 percent dumb. I'm stickin to that story. Reading this blog might make you want to be good, but probably just dumb. | |
|  | Donovan Henderson is editor of NEXTnc. | |
|  | Here at Nextnc we have some characters. Get a sneak peak behind the curtain and find out what amusing antics our staffers get themselves into on a weekly basis. | |
|  | What is up FoCo?
I am a recent college graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead. After recieving my B.A. in English and Mass Communications this past August I moved down to Colorado.
I enjoy long walks on the beach, candlelight dinners, and heavy metal. My hobbies include reading and writing, music, movies, and getting drunk. Some of my favorite contemporary authors include Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and Kurt Vonnegut. My top movies are anything directed by Kubrick. I enjoy listening to anything that rocks.
Right now I am just trying to get to know Colorado and FoCo better. Mostly in order to find the best drink specials on each day that ends in Y. So if you know where I can get a cheap drunk on, let me know!
--Drew | |
|  | Life's little morsels of inspiration, observation and encouragement seen through the eyes of the Nextnc reporter.
| |
|  | Ms. Giles currently lives in Colorado where she stars in her own private reality show. She writes aphoristic accounts of her life, taken completely out of context, and embellished with characters and situations disguised to resemble something close to interesting. | |
|  | over and out | |
| | My name is Michelle Turley and I'm 28 years old. I live in Severance with my hubbie, Brandon. We have 2 dogs and a cat. We enjoy camping, four-wheeling, and just being in the mountains. I like to cook, clean (go figure), flea market, and play poker. I have so much to say about poker... | |
|
|
