Alfred Borden and Robert Angier are two up-and-coming
magicians who spark up a friendship when they work together as ‘plants’ whilst
learning the tricks of the trade. But their friendship turns to a rivalry when
Angier’s wife drowns during a performance: the result of a wrong knotting by
Borden. Whilst attempting various revenges on Borden, Angier becomes obsessed
with his rival’s new trick, ‘the teleported man’, and determines to discover
the secret of the illusion and recreate it with better skill. The rivalry
quickly escalates into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse as each magician tries to
outthink, outshine, and outsmart the other; leaving a trail of human wreckage
behind them.
I love this film! It’s
one of the greater thrillers to grace screens in the past decade. Based on the
novel by Christopher Priest and adapted for the screen by Jonathan and
Christopher Nolan, The Prestige is a
FANTASTIC piece of work that keeps you on your toes, leaves you wanting more,
and keeps you guessing and second guessing yourself even on second, third, and
fourth viewings. It’s a wholly brilliant and original thriller that I don’t
think should be missed…at all!
Alfred Borden and Robert Angier are two
up-and-coming magicians who spark up a friendship when they work together as ‘plants’
whilst learning the tricks of the trade. But their friendship turns to a
rivalry when Angier’s wife drowns during a performance: the result of a wrong
knotting by Borden. Whilst attempting various revenges on Borden, Angier
becomes obsessed with his rival’s new trick, ‘the teleported man’, and
determines to discover the secret of the illusion and recreate it with better
skill. The rivalry quickly escalates into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse as
each magician tries to outthink, outshine, and outsmart the other; leaving a
trail of human wreckage behind them.
Complete and utter mind-fucks are in store
whenever you attempt to penetrate a Christopher Nolan flick and The Prestige is no exception. Keep in
mind, Christopher Nolan not only brought us the darker rejuvenations of Batman,
he is also the man behind Memento.
Need I say more? The Prestige is a
phenomenal thriller that can best be described as a complete and utter blur of
memories and reality. The film jumps dizzily from time frame to time frame, with
all cues being given by the diaries of each magician, which have fallen into
the other magician’s hands and are being voice-over narrated. I think that if I
attempted to articulate the plot flow of this movie, I would go insane or die of spontaneous combustion due to the sheer
cerebral stress, so it’s best that I leave you with the simple and undeniable
statement of… YOU HAVE GOT TO WATCH
THIS MOVIE! Seriously, go down right
now and rent yourself a copy, you won’t regret it: this movie is brilliant and
deserves to be acknowledged and admired for what it is.
Our two rival magicians
are Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, both of them delivering excellent
performances. What I love most about the whole thing is how it’s a marvellous
depiction of how the show-goes-on-the-other-foot. Jackman begins the film being
innocent, naïve, and charming but soon escalates into this determined,
passionate hell-bent machine whereas Bale begins that way: passionate,
undeterred, and un-fooled but then loses that ferocity over the duration. They
were both equally as brilliant and memorable as the other and their performances
provided the movie with another level of drama and thriller-ness.
Not to
mention that the CAST IS AWESOME! Starring Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson,
Rebecca Hall, Piper Perabo, Andy Serkis, and David Bowie, The Prestige is a phenomenally wonderful thriller packed with
violence, revenge, obsession, romance, and various bouts of comedy. It’s a
fantastically original thriller up there in the company of Memento, Fight Club, Shutter Island, and maybe even Inception.
"Are you watching closely?"
No comments:
Post a Comment