MCT CAMPUSThe Prestige
Rating: 4.5/5
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Piper Perabo
Now playing: Chase Park Plaza, Plaza Frontenac
Christopher Nolan has stunned audiences before, first by telling noir backwards and studying memory in “Memento” and then by turning a comic book icon into a thoughtful piece of pop art with “Batman Begins.” After the hints left in the last movie, fan boys and movie geeks alike can’t wait to see Heath Ledger don the purple and green as the Joker and face off against Christian Bale in 2008’s “The Dark Knight.” In the meantime, Nolan has just constructed an immaculate and intricate shocker that has catapulted him past other young directors toward that upper crust. Possessing the Midas touch, he just can’t seem to help churning out gold.
Nineteenth-century magician movies must be all the rage with Hollywood brass as this is the second one we’ve seen this fall alone. “The Illusionist” seems simple when compared to “The Prestige” because this movie not only has bite, but sinks its teeth deeper into your psyche than you notice. Bale plays Alfred Borden, a gifted yet cocky (and cockney to boot) illusionist who is pitted against Hugh Jackman’s American magician, Robert Angier. An old grudge proves to be too great to overcome and the two spend their careers butting heads and sabotaging each other so that one can prove to be the other’s better. Angier is the greater showman and thus more easily rights himself after every slip, but Borden hangs back, waiting for his moment to strike and shock the world with his unbelievable trick.
Most of the movie plays in flashback as each reads the other’s diary. There is a lot of jumping back and forth which is handled with expertise by Nolan and his editor Lee Smith, the genius behind the seamless “Master and Commander.” The performers learn their craft from Cutter (the effortlessly emotive Michael Caine), an old-schooler who describes the three acts of a successful magic trick: The Pledge, The Turn and The Prestige. It does not take a genius to realize that Nolan is in fact describing movies and especially those designed to fool the audience. His movie works with this structure but also subverts it, using “The Prestige” as yet another trick to fool the audience into thinking they were supposed to be fooled.
The problem with trick movies is actually tricking the audience without cheating them by making the answer impossible to guess at before the final act, or to make the sleight of hand so excruciatingly simple that we wait for the ending hoping that we are wrong. What Nolan gives is not one trick, but an entire magic show, making enough trap doors obvious that we ignore the hand he has behind his back. The movie is always moving and the photography and staging are all so precise and believable that we sit, mouths agape, taking everything in, ignorant of the mastery behind the simple show.
The performances are all powerful if never extraordinary, with the exception being David Bowie playing Nicola Tesla, mostly due to the fact that few words in any language are as exciting as “David Bowie playing Nicola Tesla.” The sub-plot involving the Hungarian inventor helps to shed light on the differences between magic and science. Bale and Jackman enjoy making their characters bristle from afar and relish the few scenes they have together making the sparks really fly. The only thing close to a weak link is Scarlett Johansson, who is able to fill out her costume but unfortunately not her character in the limited time she is on-screen.
The screenplay is sharp and skillfully adapted from Christopher Priest’s novel, and gives the leads just enough depth to keep one at arm’s length. The biggest flaw of this movie is that it doesn’t pull many punches. The accents are often thick and the dialogue is difficult to decipher, but in many ways that just forces the viewer to concentrate harder. This is a movie designed to be seen more than once, which is unfortunate for poor college students. Like a really fantastic magic trick, sometimes this movie does its job so well that the viewer risks being under-whelmed by its simplicity. The key magic of “The Prestige” is Nolan’s distraction of the audience with so much “what” that they ignore the “why” until after the film is over, when the audience realizes that they have all been had, in that good way.