Catching up: The Prestige

I've always been a huge movie fan, but the last 3 years or so, I have not been as religious with watching it (on the silver screen or otherwise) as I was in the past.

Anyway, thanks to good ol' DVD rentals, I've resolved to catch up to the movies I have not gotten a chance to watch. The first stop on that tour bus was Pirates of the Carribbean 2, and the second stop was The Prestige.

Stop reading now if you have not seen the movie yet and want to watch it. You got till the count of 5.

1

2

3

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5

Not bad, not bad at all. I give it 6 Nations. If I did not decipher the conceit (or in keeping with the movie, "the prestige" of it) fairly early on, I would have given it 7 Nations. No, they weren't trying to keep it intentionally hidden, (Lord knows there were enough hints and metaphors all throughout the film) but since we're talking magic here, the trick is always more fun if you didn't know the secret behind it till after you've seen it.

Anyway, me guessing it wasn't the filmmakers' or the actor's faults. It just hit me suddenly when Cutter and Angier nailed Fallon up in the coffin and Algier noted to Borden that Fallon refused to even speak one word. That's when I figured there were 2 Bordens.

But that revelation opened the door to a 2nd question - were the 2 Bordens a product of Tesla's experiments or "just" twins? The fact that they were twins was a more satisfactory reveal to me. The movie wasn't a sci-fi movie, or mystery movie, or drama, or love story, or revenge tale per se. It was all of that and then some. To have both Borden and Angier's main trick be basically be a product of science rather than illusion would have been disappointing and also too far into the whole sci-fi thing (and you know I'm a sci-fi fan so that's saying a lot).

Christopher Nolan's directing was great, as always. This is still only my 3rd favorite film of his behind Batman Begins and Memento. Obsession is an overriding theme in these 3 films, and in the case of Memento and The Prestige, another overriding theme is the idea that one's perception for all intents and purposes is one's own reality as well.

Christian Bale, a terrific actor by the way (I still remember him from Empire of the Sun, that's how old I am), seems to love playing the parts which calls for being obsessed (Batman and The Prestige), or that calls for a dual identity (ditto) or addresses Perception and Reality (Equilibrium). And God bless him for it. And regarding Mr. Bale, I still say he would have been the perfect choice to replace Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. The only reason I'm glad he didn't was because it would have put a serious crimp on him being Bruce Wayne. And we like him a lot as Bruce Wayne.

Hugh Jackman was great (Marvel vs. DC fans, in the end, Bats beat Wolvie), Michael Caine was splendid as usual, David Bowie as Tesla was a kick, and Scarlett Johanssen was good for what she was there to do. I must say though, I did not even recognize that the lady who played Julia (Angier's wife) was Piper Perabo. What happened to her since Coyote Ugly??

Anyways, good stuff. I'm glad I'm watching movies again. I've really missed it a lot.