The Prestige

Viewer Rating:Cyberx_94 has rated The Prestige rating: 4 Star

The Prestige

Directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Michael Caine , Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale the Prestige is a mystery thriller set in Victorian England and focuses on two rival magicians , one who becomes sentenced to death. Oh and there's also a mysterious machine thrown into the mix.
The film is 2 hours 10 minutes long.

There are many reasons why I anticipated watching this, a friend whom I trust the opinions of told me this was the finest film ever made, and the genre and period are also favourites of mine. Nolan also directed Inception , the Dark Knight , Batman Begins and Momento which although I only saw bits of the last film mentioned was just as good as the ones I mentioned prior to it.
Nolan's trademark approach and his similar casting choices are back here again as are his high production values. This is also another example of him being one of the few people out there making film's with actual storylines, movies that arrest ones attention rather than repel it. Because believe you me Prestige requires a good ear from its audience. It is also the type of film which develops at a sometimes frustrating, sometimes deliberate pace but ultimately unravels itself perfectly. Nolan's script leaves viewers perplexed and suitably mind bended throughout, we know for the most part watching someone's in prison at a certain point, there is a rivalry between magicians and a strange device but it isn't until the end where we get a summary followed by a shocking twist that we fully grasp the whole picture and it makes you feel a lot less stupid by the conclusion. I did feel that it took about 20
Many thrillers fall apart due to predictability but those trappings are avoided here.
I'm not a big Bale fan but he played quite a difficult and varied character impressively here and Jackman was the best of the bunch and for once I felt Scarlett Johansson stood out in a film I watched featuring her.
A challenging and intelligent film that doesn't come around often enough, though I will undoubtedly need to be re-watch with a higher level of concentration.
Mysteries don't come much better than this.
If I could criticize it, it is that Nolan has outdone himself with his other work , most specifically Inception.

Verdict: ****

Review published on the 31 August 2010 05:42