THE PRESTIGE Film Review - 30/11/06

Christopher Nolan's follow-up to "Batman Begins" follows the trials and tribulations of two stage magicians thrust into a bitter and deadly rivalry as each attempts to best the other and everything you view about this film is false. Plots illuminate threads inside other plots and Nolan creates a cinematic version of the magician's "sleight-of-hand" in a way that everything is there for you to see it just depends on how you interpret it? Halfway through something struck me that I hadn't realised and then another sentence set me thinking and I had picked up two plot threads out of thin air "just-like-that" but then again was I right? A strong dramatic cast pull this whole bizarre story together with a touch of romance and sci-fi and strangely enough it all work's in a similar vein to Milos Forman's "Amadeus" except set in turn-of-the-century London in the late 1800's with even a cameo of David Bowie as Nikolas Tesla. This intriguing drama plough's through a field of light-bulbs (I kid you not!) in such an engaging fashion that you don't at once twig just how you are being manipulated into a big fall (In more ways than one?) come the end.
Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale face off against each other as the rivals abetted by Michael Caine in a very shrewd choice of role as Cutter the man who really makes things happen. A slick, clever thriller than never really detracts you from it's main story across it's two-hour running time. Victorian magic and stagecraft has been rarely presented better.
Even the posters for the film have an air about them - The further away from them you look at them the more defined they become in another attempt at forcing the viewer to see something in a different way. A classic film destined to be mentioned in the future as another one of "the greats" - Pure distilled dramatic moonshine! (And incidentally I've played with and on words with this review that you won't understand unless you see the film!!)