Where misdirection should be wielded with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel, this movie uses it like a sledgehammer to batter the viewer into numbed submission, which is too bad, because buried beneath the randomly shifting timelines was a pretty cool story.
The story follows Robert Angier ()Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) two young magicians aspiring to become the most celebrated magician of their era. Starting as friends and co-workers, tragedy sets them against each other in a blood feud as each attempts to outdo the other. The problem is that the movie shifts backwards and forwards in time, seemingly at random intervals. I'm guessing that the effect is supposed to be one of revelation as scenes take on a different light as they are explained by later ones, but the problem is that there are no revelations.
Magic relies on mystery, and there are no mysteries here. We know what is coming long before the movie gets there.
I can't say much more about the movie without giving away some spoilers, so I'll put the rest of the review below the fold. I do give away the major plot points, so if you plan on seeing the movie, don't go any further.
Movies that rely on a gimmick, a twist, or a shock ending are usually only good for one viewing. While occasionally, you get a movie that makes the twist the icing on the cake instead of the cake itself, like The Sixth Sense, or Million Dollar Baby, more often, writers and directors get so hung up on preserving the twist that they forget to serve up the rest of the movie.
The Prestige has the makings of a killer movie, but not only does it fail to bake the cake, the icing falls flat as well. Michael Caine told us early in the movie that Borden was using a double, and since the character of Fuller just randomly materialized, it was pretty clear who the double was. And as for the contents of the the tanks, anybody who didn't see that coming wasn't watching the movie.
So much for the twists.
There's another problem in the story that comes from the book; the rules set at the beginning of the movie were violated. This is a story about stage magic, illusions. To suddenly introduce real magic, even if it is supposedly based on science, breaks my suspension of disbelief. I don't buy it anymore.
This could have been a much better movie. It's worth a matinee, or a rental, but I left the theater wanting to see The Illusionist, which is supposed to be a better movie.
Posted by Rich at October 27, 2006 4:22 PM | TrackBack