The Prestige

Mark this day on your calendar, boys and girls, for I'm about to give my first negative film review since starting this blog.

Over the weekend, I paid a visit to the Drafthouse to see Christopher Nolan's newest film, The Prestige. I went in unsure of how I would like it, because when I saw the trailers, something just didn't strike me as right with it. (It may also have been a matter of timing—having two magician movies based at the turn of the 20th Century come out back to back, much like Stir of Echoes came on the heels of The Sixth Sense several years back.) Having seen much of Nolan's other works and admiring them greatly, I nevertheless wanted to give The Prestige a fair chance.

The story revolves around two young aspiring magicians in the late 1800s. Christian Bale plays Alfred Borden, and Hugh Jackman plays Robert Angier. Both are assistants in a magic show when they're younger, with the main magic trick being an underwater escape by Angier's wife, played by Piper Perabo. Even then, they're sort of in competition with each other, arguing over whose knots are better (their job in the act is to tie up Perabo in easily escapable knots so she can safely exit the underwater tank). But one night, both Perabo and Bale agree to try another knot on her hands—only unbeknownst to them, this knot swells underwater and she can't free her wrists, thus she drowns on-stage in front of the entire magician's audience. (Not an easily watchable scene, I might add.) Jackman of course blames Bale for her death, despite its being accidental, and thus the stage is set (no pun intended) for Jackman’s lifelong quest to destroy Bale's Borden—not only as a magician but also as a man.

A respectable premise for a movie, but somehow I just didn't buy it, and I'm still trying to figure out why. Part of me wants to credit it to the acting, for at times neither Jackman nor Bale felt natural in their roles; rather, it kind of felt forced for both men. Scarlett Johansson was forgettable in her small role as the assistant who's tossed back and forth between the two magicians for infiltration purposes. Her acting wasn't very striking, either. I was hoping that The Prestige would give her an acting boost after The Black Dahlia, but sadly that didn't prove true (at least for me). Plus, I think her party-girl reputation is preceding her right now, so it's kind of hard to take her seriously as an actress.

Michael Caine, though, I would almost say he steals the show. His character is more of an observer and less of a participant, but every scene he's in, your eyes are glued to him and nobody else. I'm not entirely sure if he was supposed to serve as the moral center of the movie, because even he get his fingers dirty by the end, but he's nevertheless a subtle yet powerful presence on the screen. Andy Serkis of Lord of the Rings fame had a small yet interesting role as an electrician's (wizard's?) assistant—and I didn’t even recognize David Bowie when he stepped onto the scene as the electrician/wizard Tesla! (I guess, even 20 years later, I still see David Bowie as the mullet-headed Goblin King from Labyrinth.)

I think my major problem with this film is that, plotwise, it didn’t strike me as too believable. (Sorry, I won’t give any spoilers today.) The plot really did hit the ground running, but it felt too rushed. Since this film was based on a book, part of me accredits that rush to its adaptation from the source material. I know it's never easy translating a novel onto the big screen, let alone doing it effectively and believably, but because a movie is limited in terms of running time, sometimes the pacing is stepped up and the exposition of various plot and character details comes at the audience too fast or too soon. I think that was the case with The Prestige. The only other example of this that I can draw upon is Mystic River. I read that book before seeing the movie, and felt completely captivated by the book. When I went to see the film (almost immediately after finishing the book, I might add), I again felt like things were rushed. Many elements from the book made it into the movie, but it felt like things were thrown at me too early, and thus I felt the pacing of the book was better.

The plot twists of The Prestige, both at the height of the story and at the very end, almost made me want to categorize it into the "thinking movie" category, for it made me wonder just how far is too far. In the end, though, it's hard to tell who the more moral character is—Bale's Borden or Jackman's Angier. Both of them have blood on their hands, both of them go to extremes to outdo and outwit the other, and both of them are relentless in trying to take away that which the other values most. So in the end, you're left to wonder if, in some ways, both are getting what they deserve. (Though Bale's final twist was a little too convenient for me.)

The set and costume designs were spectacular, but it wasn't enough to make up for the Band-Aided plot and acting. For now, I'm going to give this a 5 out of 10, and I reserve the right to revisit this film at a later date. I can't guarantee I'll enjoy The Prestige any better the second time around, but in all fairness, some of Christopher Nolan's movies are an acquired taste for me. Case in point, I had to watch Memento at least four times before I liked it. The first two times, it depressed the hell out of me. Finally on the third and fourth viewings, I started to see the story's uniqueness and magic. (It didn't hurt either that, on the fourth viewing, I was cuddled up with a pretty girl on her couch, both of us wrapped in a blanket.)