The Prestige

In my previous post i did tell you im gonna write about The Prestige so here's my account of the movie. Dont worry its a no spoiler review.

The Prestige -

So im sure many of you have never heard of this movie, was never really famous in Malaysia due to lack of publicity. Its a movie directed by Christopher Nolan, a pretty famous guy who directed some great movies but yeah, who cares this review has nothing to do with his other movies...just saying he's a great director. Now..The Prestige, what is it?

Michael Caine was magnificent as Cutter

Well in every magic trick there's 3 parts. The first part is called the Pledge, where the magician shows something pretty normal and lets the audience inspect it. The second part is called the Turn, where the magician does something NOT VERY normal to the pretty normal thing, something that makes you go ooohhhh and aaahhhh. Well usually you wont be very impressed, which is why there's a third part, which is called the Prestige, to make the audience simply wonder...and clap. The Prestige is the most difficult part, for an example, a magician can easily make an object disappear in a trick, but that is simply not enough to impress many. What makes that trick wonderful...is when the magician makes that disappeared object reappear, in a fabulous fashion.

So now u know what The Prestige actually stands for. Lets get to the movie, i had to say when the movie started nothing much really made any sense, it was all blurry. The movie kept jumping from the past to the future vice versa. The beauty of this is that Nolan didnt use the typical way of showing past and present, the all too familiar black and white or dark screen. It looks pretty much the same but the audience can somehow differentiate the past and the present. As the movie goes on, the blur starts to become clearer, and excitement comes into the story all the while keeping the 'whats going on? i wanna know more' feeling in us. It's pretty much like a box of chocolates, you don't usually see the chocolate, you slowly open the box, the wrapper, then you pop it into your mouth for an absurdly wonderful taste. So yeah, the story unravels bit by bit, beautifully.

The story is set towards the end of 18th century, and there were 2 men who start as magic helpers.. you know, guys who stand at the side getting the stuff for the magician.. or being a 'volunteer' to check the magicians equipment or even tie the magician. Inside, these 2 men wanted to become magicians themselves. The two men were Alfred Borden(Christian Bale) and Rupert Angier(Hugh Jackman). So at one point, their mentor, magic equipment engineer Cutter(Michael Caine) told them that one of them will get 10 minutes of showtime if he can figure out how this old Chinese dude can do the 'fish in the bowl' trick. So Borden and Angier went to find out, yeah i wont tell you how he did it, but Borden is the one who found out how and he got his 10minutes on stage. So basically this incident taught Borden that TOTAL CONVICTION is the key to being a successful magician while Angier believed in GREAT SHOWMANSHIP.

Alfred Borden and Ruper Angier

So both of them started to become rivals when a terrible incident happened and both worked hard to outperform the other and also screw up the other person's shows. Still, at one point, Borden came up with a new trick..a very impressive magic called ' The Transported Man'. This made Angier try to find out the secret but he couldnt find out how, later Angier came up with a more impressive 'The New Transported Man' as a challenge to Borden. Borden, always the better magician but a less impressive showman, knew how Angier did it and screwed Angiers trick while embarrassing Angier at every turn.

Later on, Angier with the help of Nikola Tesla(David Bowie) comes up with an even more impressive magic which drove Borden mad and everyone shocked with disbelief, yeah not gonna tell you what it is :) . Still if you're looking to find who is the 'good guy'..you wont find it here, they are both equally bad and good. No choice of hero and villain in this movie.

David Bowie as Nikola Tesla

I have to say at the end of this movie, one word kept defining this movie in my head. That is 'MISDIRECTION'. The most beautiful thing about this movie is the way it makes the audience believe something at one turn and at another it gives us a whole new idea. The movie itself was magic, beauty, a movie so impressive that i wish everyone watched it. Total misdirection employed by both magicians...all culminating at the very last moment of revealing. What it takes to be a magician...and why they do what they do..

5 out of 5