Force Fed Films: "The Prestige" (2006)

As Jim watches a rather ‘special’ movie this week, I did have a reason for forcing to watch it. Oh wait, no I didn’t. Though I think Jim was a little too kind to me getting me to watch “The Prestige”. As he so elegantly summarized it up for me, it’s basically Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) battling Batman (Christian Bale) in war with magic. Now the first thing I thought of was cartoon Batman and cartoon Wolverine duking it out with capes and top hats. That was not the case here, slightly disappointed by that but hey what can you do? After the jump, (insert exploding smoke bomb here) we take a wonderful look into “The Prestige”.

Two up and coming magicians take to the stage as they are part of the main magicians act. After a fatal accident with Robert Angier’s (Jackman) wife, he blames it all on Alfred Borden (Bale). At this point on the two are arch enemies and rival magicians. The two can’t stand to see the other be more successful than themselves but after Alfred pulls the impossible “The Transported Man”, Robert is now obsessed with trying to find out how it was done. He will do anything from lying, cheating and even sabotaging, but the tricks go both ways.

Olivia and Robert stare onto the stage as they practise the big finale.

Two years before “The Dark Knight”, Nolan directs another movie with Bale and Michael Caine. Roles are reverse, Bale’s character’s name is Alfred and he is under direct supervision of Michael Cain who plays Robert’s engineer illusionist, John Cutter. I just thought that was kind of neat.  Other neat cast members are David Bowie playing Nikola Tesla and the stunning Scarlett Johansson as Olivia the assistant.

But bringing back to the characters, the Spy vs. Spy like competition between Robert and Alfred is captivating. Because the two characters are so different, Robert being the showman and Alfred being the innovator, the battle of wits is great. Now I’m used to Caine playing the more elegant and proper role but here John is a strong, leading role and this is easily my favourite role from him.

Dammit, he got me with the coin behind my ear trick again!

The movie has that feel that Inception delivers a few years back, oh look at that another Nolan directed film. With the non-linear story line and the fun to be had with reality, the movie took me for a fun ride. I was always asking myself, what is real and what’s the illusion. It’s the fun of guessing that makes the movie so interesting. I found a special liking to trying to figure out how the magic tricks worked, thankful the movie does explain most of it. And from that all I can deduce is that magicians are jerks. They lie, deceit and most importantly steal money from you.

Now this might be a minor point but seeing Telsa in the movie was neat. As a fan of Tesla and all his doings, it’s interesting how the movie incorporates him into with some sci-fi elements. I won’t say too much, but his inventions are wicked. That and David Bowie plays him, it really “Changes” my views on Bowie as an actor. 

Caine controls the set, he is the alpha dog here.

Though initially disappoint that the movie isn’t just Wolverine and Batman battling it out with bunnies, doves and roses flying every which way. It was fun to watch two magicians battling it out. The movie plays out with a quick pace and the way it’s told in a complex spiral, my head is still spinning. But the movie does reward you when everything is said and done. The acting is good, the story is good and the whole concept is good. It’s a good movie.