The Prestige
Chris Nolan
A story of the poisonous rivalry between two magicians, Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), after a trick that involves them both goes wrong and ends up killing Angier’s wife. It’s wrapped in an elaborate set-up, shifting from one’s point-of-view to the other as each one appears to have the upper hand. At the heart of the movie is the secret behind Borden’s act The Transported man.
The problem with the puzzle-movie however, is that having figured out the this mystery halfway through, thanks to the repetition of hints and some unusual camera choices, I was smugly satisfied and wondered why the movie was dragging on so. But Chris (director and co-writer) and Jonathan Nolan (co-writer) had more tricks up their sleeves. There was now Angier’s trick to figure out. But the fact that they tried to have their cake and eat it too rankled. If you bought their explanation, well and good, but if you didn’t, they had an admonishment ready, you, the viewer, are simply not ready or willing to accept the ‘truth.’ But the unsatisfying deus ex machina only left me feeling cheated.
Still, this was a handsomely-filmed movie, and Bale was as intensely charismatic as ever. Despite its flaws, this is a genre-busting movie that managed to linger on in my head.