Movie Review - The Prestige
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(1 votes, average: 4 out of 4)
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2006 / 128 Minutes / PG-13
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz
“Insomnia” and “Batman Begins” were fairly straightforward (and relatively great) movies. But lest we forget how director Christopher Nolan’s career began, he has returned with another dense puzzle box of a film. With its unconventional structure and cinematic sleight of hand, “The Prestige” seems less like the work of the man who reinvented the Batman franchise than it does the work of the man who announced his arrival to Hollywood with the film “Memento”.
“The Prestige” begins near the end, with Christian Bale’s magician character in jail for the apparent murder of Hugh Jackman’s magician character. It then skips around over the course of several years to illustrate the rivalry between these two mysterious, master illusionists. This form of storytelling seems slightly disorganized at first (we’ve got a character reading a diary in which that character is deciphering the first character’s diary) but within a half hour, we are confident that Nolan and his collaborators know what they’re doing. And this approach, odd as it might seem at first, does pay great dividends. This story would have been mesmerizing even if told in the usual, sequential manner, but this unique approach reveals certain layers of the tale at key moments and makes the story being told that much richer. Ever since the success of “Pulp Fiction” filmmakers have been toying with the narrative, to varying degrees of success, but Nolan seems more adept at this sort of thing than nearly anyone.
“The Prestige” has some neat twists and a non-linear structure, but at its core it’s a solid example of good, old-fashioned storytelling. The characters are compelling (even if we’re never exactly certain which magician we should be rooting for), the acting is excellent, the atmosphere is dense and mysterious, the production design is simply gorgeous, the musical score underlines everything nicely without being overbearing, nearly everything about this film is efficient. But above all of these things, I must congratulate Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan for constructing a marvelous puzzle of a story that never, ever frustrates despite its non-linear structure and twisty plot. Not only does the plot all come together magically (pun sort of intended) by the end, but once the final curtain of this film’s precarious magic act has been pulled aside, all of the details fit nicely into place. The real treat of this film’s story is the sheer economy of it. Not a single moment of screen time is wasted. There are no extraneous details. Like the best films, this plot has layers and those layers are reflected in every other aspect of the film. Even the magic tricks on display help to propel the plot and serve to enhance it. Even the littlest of moments have secret meanings and hold hints that only become truly apparent when the film has laid all of its cards on the table. There is a small trick involving a canary, for example, that seems simple and cute, but which actually means nearly everything once the movie’s final twist is revealed. What seems like a simple story of professional rivalry is actually much more elaborate. It is also a more emotional, due largely to the fact that the filmmakers up the stakes early on and keep pushing them as the film progresses. The reason for Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman’s rivalry, for instance, is the death of Jackman’s wife, for which he blames Bale and decides to make the other magician pay, no matter how long or what measures he must take to do so. This gives the film’s events an urgency and potency beyond mere professional one-upmanship.
The only real problem I can point to with this movie is that the main twists weren’t quite as surprising as they could have been. I’m not bragging when I say that I had the movie figured out around the halfway mark. But that actually enhanced my enjoyment of the film. Once I had figured out where the movie was inevitably going, I could appreciate the skill with which it was all put together. I could appreciate the story being told, the ingenious nature of the story’s setting, the actions of the characters and all the other little touches that added so much to the whole mix. Nolan is at the top of his game here. This is my second favorite of his films; behind only what I feel is his underrated masterpiece: “Insomnia”.
Bale, Jackman, Michael Caine and David Bowie are all remarkable in this film. Each of these men have done better work in the past, of course, but this film is a reminder of how good they routinely are and what great actors can do with even the smallest of moments. Scarlett Johannsson is little more than a pretty face in the film (it seems the older she gets, the less impressive her acting abilities become) but everyone else acquaints themselves admirably with the material and adds some vital ingredient. “The Prestige” is never quite transcendent, it didn’t move me as the best movies do and it didn’t leave me in tears or with my jaw agape in awe, but it is an absorbing, hypnotic sleight of hand from a master director, operating from a solid, intelligent script. That alone is a feat of cinematic magic.
