The Prestige (2006)Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johanssen, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis, David Bowie, Piper Perabo
The Prestige is a film that I feel has never quite received the acclaim it deserves. This is partly a result of the fact that Neil Burger's The Illusionist, a film exploring a similar area, came out at roughly the same time, and partly a result of it having been overshadowed by some of Christopher Nolan's other achievements. I think it's a cracker of a film though, so I've been wanting to give it another look for some time.
Alfred Bordon (Bale) stands accused of the murder of fellow acclaimed magician Robert Angier (Jackman). The Prestige traces the history of this feud, starting with the accident which resulted in the death of Angier's wife (Perabo), and following the fierce personal and professional rivalry which has led to this current situation.
At the very beginning of the film Michael Caine's character explains to a little girl, and to us, that every magic trick has three parts; the Pledge, in which you are presented with something ordinary; the Turn, in which the magician takes that ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary; and the Prestige, in which order is restored. The classic example being the sawing of a woman in half. The pledge is the woman. The turn is when she is sawed in half. The prestige is when she is put back together. We are given this information from the very get go because it informs the in which we understand the film. On the micro level, The Prestige is all about two magicians trying to learn each others tricks, trying to unlock the prestige. On a macro level the entire film is a magic trick, with the audience waiting for the prestige. Waiting to see how order will be restored, and how things will be explained. Nolan does not present The Prestige in chronological order, but rather jumps and forth in time, primarily through devices such as the reading of journals and letters, in such a way as to present us with important bits of information, key to unravelling the mystery. Of course, the solution is not what you expect it to be. The film has a great series of twists towards the end.
Unfortunately, as a second (or maybe third) time viewer the wow factor of the twist ending, and thus the mystery of the story, does not quite have the same impact. Much like with The Usual Suspects, there is a different type of enjoyment to be taken out of a second screening of The Prestige. Rather than seeing all the clues and trying to work out the solution, on the second viewing you have the solution and the enjoyment comes from spotting all of the clues that point to it. The twist ending in The Prestige is the best kind of twist, rather than coming out of left field it is actually completely obvious... providing you were looking for it. Much like any magic trick, once you know how it is done you can't work out how you ever didn't see it in the first place.
Christian Bale is very good playing a grumpy, incredibly determined artist (which when you think about it makes reasonable sense), Michael Caine is good as always and Scarlett Johansson struggles valiantly through an English accent, but the real treat is Hugh Jackman. It is not a case of his performance being better than the others, but rather his being the most surprising. The Prestige shows a darker side of Jackman than has been seen in anything else he's done. Wolverine was gruff, but he was still heroic. As Angier, Jackman portrays an incredible bitterness and hatred towards his nemesis which makes him quite frightening, while still possessing that Hugh Jackman showmanship which makes him a perfect fit for the Great Danton.
There is a nice cameo, or slightly more than a cameo, from David Bowie as real life scientist Nikola Tesla. Tesla was known for his experiments with electricity and having him there as a supporting character both grounds the story in history and gives it a bit of that faux-science which movies love to use as a short cut to explain tricky premises. By faux-science in movies, I'm talking about: "How did they travel through time in Back to the Future?" "They had a flux capacitor." "Oh, ok." or "How did they bring dinosaurs back to life in Jurassic Park?" "They used DNA." "Oh, ok."
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