“MOVIES I LOVE” by Amy : The Prestige (2006)
Running time: 130 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Director: Christopher Nolan
I love a good suspense movie. I enjoy trying to figure out the twists and turns before they are revealed and, unfortunately for people watching with me, I often blurt out my thoughts. Sometimes I’m right, and sometimes I’m not. The Prestige is one movie that had me baffled the whole way through.
The movie begins with magician Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) accused of the murder of his rival, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman). Years earlier, Borden’s mistake caused the death of Angier’s wife onstage during a performance. Angier’s grief set off a deadly game of one-upmanship, culminating with the accusation against Borden.
Bale and Jackman deliver predictably brilliant performances. Michael Caine is fantastic as the young men’s mentor. I was pleasantly surprised by David Bowie as Nikola Tesla and by Andy Serkis as his right-hand man, Alley. Tesla delivers one of my favorite lines: “Exact science is not an exact science.”
(Tesla’s assistant, Alley, demonstrates the power of electricity. Tesla is known for his work with alternating current, which we use today.)
This is a difficult movie to review because I don’t want to say too much. It’s a movie that should be seen unspoiled. Even after knowing the full story, I enjoy re-watching so I can look for clues missed on previous viewings. Inevitably, I do find new clues almost every time I watch.
I will say this is a movie that requires concentration and attention. In typical Christopher Nolan fashion the plot jumps around in time, flashing back to the past as seen through the journal of Alfred Borden. It can be very disorienting, and the movie even warns of this plot device by asking at the outset “Are you watching closely?”
It’s quite clever to have a suspense movie based on the magician’s trickery. Sometimes it seems as though the dialogue is about the viewers and not just about the magician’s audience, as when Caine’s character Cutter says, “Now you’re looking for the secret, but you won’t find it because, of course, you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to work it out. You want to be fooled.”
-Amy
