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By WAYNE KLEIN
If magic is the art of
deception, than Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige"
is high art indeed. This complex film that charts
the rivalry between two magicians Angier (Hugh
Jackman continuing to astonish with his
willingness to stretch beyond leading man roles)
and Borden (Christian Bale continuing to
demonstrate that he is one of actors in film)
triggered by the accidental death of Angier's wife
and the disastrous consequences of their career
long obsession for revenge is a fascinating feat
of showmanship. Christopher Nolan ("Batman
Begins," "Following," "Insomnia" and "Memento")
takes Christopher Priest's fantasy/science fiction
novel and twists it into a tale of two men that
look into the abyss and find that it doesn't just
look back but inhabits their souls.
Told in the fractured construction similar to
"Memento," "The Prestige" manages to be
thoughtful, engaging but also doesn't provide any
easy answers. As one of the magicians points out
in the story, once how the trick itself is
revealed the trick becomes almost mundane losing
much of its mystery. That's the chance that Nolan
takes with "The Prestige" as the constantly
shifting tone, clues presented in the film as to
what's really going on vs. what we perceive going
on took many audience members by surprise. The
result was an audience that was unprepared for
this unusual cocktail of a film. Nolan manages to
balance the period storytelling and the other
elements from Priest's novel (actually improving
and clarifying some elements of the novel I might
add) creating a puzzle about men who are as lost
and puzzled as to why they act the way they do
themselves. Those expecting a film like "The
Illusionist" will be disappointed. Beyond t he
background of magic the two films are unique and
quite distinct from each other in their approach.
"The Illusionist" is a more conventional
mystery-thriller with a romance at its core while
"The Prestige" quite unconventionally mixes and
matches genres in a way that might be disquieting
to those expecting a straight forward thriller.
Both films are entertaining but for very different
reasons. The best way to enjoy "The Prestige" is
to pay attention to how Michael Caine as Angier's
inventor explains the structure of a magic show on
stage.
"The Pledge" is where the magician shows you
something ordinary but it isn't. "The Turn" is
where the magician takes the ordinary thing and
makes it do something extraordinary. "The
Prestige" is the part where lives hang in the
balance, there's some unusual twists and turns and
you see something shocking that you haven't seen
before. Keep in mind that the shocking part may
not be the trick itself but the cost to the
characters.
The extras are slim in this set. I'm surprised
that Nolan didn't elect to provide a commentary
track but, perhaps, he felt that would distract
from the magic on display here. The featurette
"The Director's Notebook: The Cinematic Sleight of
Hand of Christopher Nolan" doesn't quite make up
for the lack of more information on the tricks
presented in the show. In this case it's the cost
of their rivalry to the characters and the lives
of those they love that matters the most. Although
Nolan's screenplay (written with his brother
Jonathan) is flawed and could use better character
development for some of the secondary characters,
it's still quite a daring film that won't be for
everyone but I still recommend it. |
