The Prestige

[Sabin]

Owen Gleiberman: B+

Looks like solid entertainment.We think of magic as puckish, elegant, lighter than air, but in The Prestige, an aggressively devious sleight-of-hand thriller directed by Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins), the magic, even at its most clever, is powered by currents — sometimes literal ones — of electricity and danger. In the Victorian age of high magic showmanship, a woman gets dunked with a violent splash into a glass tank, and it's far from preordained that she'll ever get out. A man makes a bird vanish by smashing its cage; a bullet catcher asks a ruffian in the crowd to fire a gun at him, and the trick turns out to be as hazardous as it sounds. Then there's the enigmatic silver sphere, invented by Thomas Edison's rival Nikola Tesla, that shoots off white bolts of Frankensteinian voltage, teleporting a top hat (or a person) from one place to the next. Magic or technology? Either way, The Prestige wants to fool your senses by ripping a hole in reality.

It does so with a busy, at times brutal, singlemindedness. Nolan unfurls the parallel stories of two magicians, the sleek showman Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and the brooding virtuoso of illusion Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), the two of whom start as young partners but end up as fierce competitors, trying to top each other's secrets in a fake-out to the death. The Prestige leaps around in time with dizzy abandon, a deliberate strategy to make magic seem like the most concrete, grounded thing in the movie. It works, though at the expense of giving the audience much room to breathe.

Kicking off with an apparent murder, the movie flashes back to Angier and Borden as they learn the tricks of their trade, abetted by Cutter (Michael Caine), a builder of illusionary hardware who explains the three parts of every great feat of magic: the Pledge (mundane setup), the Turn (which fashions it into something extraordinary), and the Prestige (in which the ordinary is restored with a miraculous twist). This formula of wonder comes alive as each magician lures audiences with his version of the Transported Man, in which the performer enters a door on one side of the stage only to emerge, moments later, from a door on the other side. How Borden achieves his far more amazing version is the movie's pivotal mystery.

Watching The Prestige, you may find yourself longing for a bit of the old-fashioned, streamlined trickery of The Illusionist. Nolan gives his heroes wives, plus an assistant (played by Scarlett Johansson) who becomes the spy/mistress for each man in turn, but the relationships aren't convincing; they're more like setups for illusions — flesh-and-blood versions of the Pledge. The film works best on stage, where Nolan keeps your eyes popped wide in curiosity. His canniest move is to reveal the key to certain tricks, thus upping the ante on the tricks we aren't in on. Jackman, all keen intensity, and Bale, who knows how to push passion to the brink of pathology, are magnetic foils, and David Bowie makes Tesla a turn-of-the-century gentleman freak genius. The Prestige isn't art, but it reaps a lot of fun out of the question, How did they do that?

[VanHelsing]

I can't wait to see this! I'm in it duh. :p

[Sonic Youth]

The Prestige


John Hazelton in Los Angeles
Screendaily

Dir: Christopher Nolan. US. 2006. 128mins.

Sometime superheroes Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play obsessively feuding Victorian magicians in The Prestige, a classy thriller, with a Gothic sci-fi twist, from writer-director Christopher Nolan. Coming off last year's comic book blockbuster Batman Begins, Nolan this time turns intricate literary material into an atmospheric and intriguing - if not entirely successful - period mystery that has more in common with his 2000 breakthrough Memento. The Newmarket Films production (with a reported $40m budget) has the potential to reach a decent-sized up-market crossover audience, but its theme may not make it a challenging sell for distributors Buena Vista and Warner.

After its world premiere at this week's new Rome Film Fest, The Prestige opens wide in North America (with a PG-13 rating) this weekend. Competition will come from other, arguably more marketable upscale autumn releases, though the presence of Jackman (from the X-Men movies), Bale (star of Batman Begins) and co-stars Michael Caine and Scarlett Johansson should help draw opening weekend cinemagoers.

Another challenge for domestic distributor Buena Vista will be to differentiate the film from The Illusionist, the late summer lower-budgeted magician-themed period piece that successfully built word-of-mouth and at time of writing is still in the North American top 10. The similarities between the two films may be superficial, but they may still confuse prospective ticket buyers.

Warner Bros International may be able to avoid confusing clashes in other territories as it rolls out The Prestige between November and January. The star names will again be an asset internationally and Warner should also get some mileage out of the film's strong supporting cast and literary pedigree....



....The result is a film that's cleverly constructed and often intriguing but never quite fully absorbing. Nolan chooses to play down the sci-fi aspects that might have produced some impressive effects and his use of a fractured time line and complex structure could test the patience of mainstream moviegoers. The film is also hurt by a few overly theatrical moments and performances.

Bale gives Borden, the more intense of the two magicians, a satisfying edge, though he sometimes overdoes the Cockney accent. Jackman is smooth to a fault as the more entertainment-minded (and, in the film, American) Angier. Caine (who played butler Alfred to Bale's Caped Crusader in Batman Begins) strolls amiably through his role as Angier's mentor.

David Bowie has a small role as real-life electricity pioneer Nikola Tesla. Equipped with a moustache and a vaguely European accent, the rock legend adopts a minimalist acting style but it's still hard not to be pulled out of the story by his appearance.

Though mostly set in London, the film successfully recreates the capital of Victorian Britain on stages and locations - including some impressive vintage theatres - in Los Angeles. Two of Nolan's regular collaborators help give the production a rich period feel: director of photography Wally Pfister does appealing, and mostly handheld camera work, and Nathan Crowley contributes nicely textured production design.

[Sonic Youth]

Uh-oh.

However: Academy award nominee... David Bowie?


The Prestige


By DENNIS HARVEY
Variety


"Every great magic trick has three acts," we're told early on in "The Prestige." Title is lingo for a stage stunt's capper moment. Yet that's precisely where Christopher Nolan's plush period mystery goes from middling to messy. Tale of dueling magicians, played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, takes itself awfully seriously, yet might have ideally suited a 1938 programmer pitting Karloff against Lugosi. Combined high polish, so-so character involvement, and a confusing denouement won't help this handsome production once word-of-mouth trumps alluring advance come-ons.

Pic will also suffer from being "the other" movie about 19th-century professional conjurers, though it's very different from current "The Illusionist." While that pic is essentially a romance, "The Prestige" focuses on the blood feud between American abroad Robert Angier (Jackman) and Cockney Alfred Borden (Christian Bale).

They're introduced as "volunteers" picked from an English music hall audience to bind magician's assistant Julia (Piper Perabo). Plunged into a water tank, she miraculously escapes.

In fact, the two young men are apprentice magicians, secretly a part of the act. Further, Julia is wife to personable Robert. He's a natural showman, while taciturn Alfred is a more gifted illusionist.

But in the name of slick presentation, Alfred takes risks that don't pass muster with safety-minded mentor Cutter (Michael Caine). One day, Alfred ties a more-difficult yoke -- with Julia's permission -- that results in her being unable to free herself; she drowns before an ax can break the glass tank.

Robert is enraged and inconsolable, particularly when he spies Alfred with new wife, Sarah (Rebecca Hall), and baby -- the happy family he feels robbed of.

The men develop separate acts, with Robert's successful while Alfred toils in dives. Nonetheless, Robert remains consumed by thoughts of vengeance. What starts out an exchange of petty humiliations turns into vicious, increasingly violent one-upmanship.

Seeing Alfred perform a stupendous act called "The Transported Man," Robert vows to steal it. When he's unable to figure it out himself, he dispatches onstage assistant and offstage lover Olivia (Scarlett Johansson) to seduce the secret from his rival.

This central chronology is interspersed throughout with dual flash-forward threads. In one, Robert travels to Colorado Springs to petition reclusive inventor Nikola Tesla (David Bowie) to build a machine like the transport he supposedly built for Alfred.

In the other thread, Alfred stands trial for the death of Robert, whom we've seen drown just like his late wife.

While complicated intrigue might have fascinated in Christopher Priest's novel, it tends to overwhelm Jonathan and Christopher Nolan's adaptation. Pic insists on a depth of human emotion that isn't developed -- protags emerge as one-dimensional, despite the efforts of two of our best leading actors -- amid increasingly elaborate, uninvolving plot mechanizations.

Pic's resolution suddenly admits to fantastical and hitherto-unsuspected elements. It's a flame-out likely to send most viewers home perplexed.

Clearly, director Nolan is aiming for something else. But the delight in sheer gamesmanship that marked his breakout "Memento" doesn't survive this project's gimmickry and aspirations toward "Les Miserables"-style epic passion.

Jackman, a familiarly intense Bale, Caine, Johansson (good if risking overexposure these days), and others all hit notes previously played in better roles. On the other hand, perpetually undervalued as an actor Bowie brings an elegant, enlivening edge to Tesla, though that figure's resonance as a real-life enigma will be lost on many.

Several of Nolan's key "Batman Begins" collaborators return here, with Wally Pfister's widescreen lensing, Nathan Crowley's production design and Joan Bergin's costumes the most notable contribs.


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The Prestige


By Kirk Honeycutt
Hollywood Reporter


Christopher Nolan's movies zero in on men in the throes of obsession, characters who desperately search for that one thing that will make their existence less compromised. From the great backward-moving thriller "Memento" to the sun-blinded film noir "Insomnia" and the philosophical epic "Batman Begins," Nolan has arrived quite naturally at "The Prestige," a movie totally dominated by obsession.

"Prestige" revolves around a rivalry between two magicians (Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale) in turn-of-the-20th century London. Each is obsessed with the other's trade secrets and boxoffice success. Obsession is like a narcotic: The more they partake, the more they crave. It's a hot subject, but for the first time, Nolan's approach might be too cool.

Audiences might enjoy this cinematic sleight of hand, but the key characters are such single-minded, calculating individuals that the real magic would be to find any heart in this tale. So the question is whether audiences find any emotional hook amid all this cleverness. If they do, there is nary a dull moment thanks to all the intrigue, eye-grabbing production values and behind-the-scenes look at magic tricks. That's a big "if," though, as the only likable character is played by Michael Caine as an ingeneur, a fellow who designs the illusions.

Nolan's screenplay, which he wrote with his brother Jonathan, derives from a novel by Christopher Priest. The movie begins in a rush, near the end of the story, but quickly backtracks to the point where the rivalry commences. Robert Angier (Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Bale) are colleagues in the employ of an aging magician trotting out an aging act that includes Robert's lovely wife, Julia (Piper Perabo). When she tragically dies during the act, Robert, not without reason, blames Alfred.

One of the film's major flaws is to waffle on this point: Alfred claims he doesn't remember what kind of a knot he tied around Julia' wrists before her immersion into water. How can this be?

Anyway, the rivalry is on as the men build illustrious careers while they sabotage each other's stage performances and plant spies in each other's camps. Each develops a signature trick, but Alfred's emerges as top dog with his Transported Man, in which he is instantly transported from one part of the stage to another. Robert becomes completely obsessed with learning how to do this trick. His ingeneur Cutter (Caine) insists he knows how it's done -- with a double. He even replicates the trick for Robert with the help of a drunk actor who is Robert's look-alike. This does nothing to appease Robert's obsession.

Robert surreptitiously attains Alfred's workbook/diary, where many secrets may exist. Meanwhile, he takes off for Colorado Springs, where the eccentric Serbian scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla (David Bowie, if you please) -- the story's one actual historical figure -- powers the entire city with electricity from his lab. Believing that Tesla built Alfred's Transporter machine, Robert hopes the wizard can build a similar contraption for him.

Just as a conjurer saws a lady in half, the movie keeps dividing its characters and relationships. Once buddies, Robert and Alfred are now rivals. Each has a wife. Robert's dies, but Alfred's, Sarah (Rebecca Hall), flourishes. Yet Sarah sees in her husband a divided soul: One days he loves her; another day he does not.

Olivia (Scarlett Johansson) becomes Robert's assistant and eventually his lover. Only Robert sends her to Alfred, ostensibly to steal his secrets, but she sells him out and becomes Alfred's lover. There are more instances of such divisions, but to reveal more would reveal the movie's twin secrets -- one of which audiences will probably guess and the other they probably won't.

So tangled are the tricks and plot lines that the story's characters are little more than sketches. Remove their obsessions, and the two magicians have little personality. The women suffer from their men's distractions but have, seemingly, little life of their own. Indeed you don't need a star such as Johansson to play Olivia, so slim is her role.

Bowie is quite wonderful as Tesla -- mysterious, exotic yet somehow the film's most reasonable man -- while Andy Serkis as his assistant brings sly comedy to an otherwise morbidly serious affair.

Production values are aces with dynamic, gritty sets; lighting that makes the movie take place in a perpetual twilight; and a lively, nerve-jangling score.