Posted by
Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Sunday, November 05, 2006 9:24:02 PM
This must be the year of the magician movies. First comes
The Illusionist, a fine effort with a beautiful score, even if it is a bit more romantic than magical. Now comes
The Prestige, a very well-written, well-directed and far more complex film that succeeds, if slowly, on almost every level.
The basic plot is simple: two young rival magicians (Christian Bale (
Batman Begins) and Hugh Jackman (
X-Men)) continually try to outdo each other in an increasingly vicious damaging cycle. While Bale, the superior magician but inferior showman, uses his own talents and wits, Jackman, the better showman, needs the help of Michael Caine to perfect his tricks and the genius of
Nikola Tesla to develop his own answer to Bale's Transported Man illusion. Although the movie is confusing and overly convoluted at the start, by the time it ends almost all of the loose ends have been tied up -- except for my confusion as to what in the world Caine was up to and whether Jackman was the only one to utilize Tesla's machine.
The Prestige is one of the few movies of this year that you may want to see twice, just to make sure that you actually understand what's going on, and it's the best movie by Christopher Nolan since
Memento. Well worth several looks