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Magic at the movies
THE PRESTIGE
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Certificate 12A
HIGHGATE film makers Christopher and Jonathan Nolan have carved themselves a niche for creating quirky twist-laden films, and The Prestige is as good as anything the pair have produced in their so far satisfying filmography.
Christopher Nolan was responsible for the well-received Batman Begins, and is currently working on another Batman film The Dark Knight.
He rescued the Batman stories from the jokey nature of the flicks which had starred Danny DeVito, Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton et al – he brought some much needed grit to the film franchise.
He has also made his name with such films as Momento – a marvellous, weird film that keeps the viewer guessing from beginning to end.
And The Prestige is the same. The Nolan boys suggest the truth is a matter of opinion, that it is subjective – and so they throw hundreds of red herrings into the mix and never let you be certain about the ground you are standing on.
The central characters are two magicians, who are a pretty obsessive pair.
Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) are aiming for the top, trying to be the best new magicians on the block.
But things are not all rosy. When their assistant Julia, who happens to be Angier’s wife, dies during the finale of a show in which she is immersed in a tank full of water, Robert blames Alfred and a feud begins.
The pair then spend some time trying to pull ever bigger rabbits out of ever smaller hats in their quest to outdo each other.
Nolan has become the master of the tiniest plot twist, the message in the back ground to the audience that makes the story line fall together in an intriguing and delightful way as you leave the cinema and ponder what you have just seen.
Robert will stop at nothing to beat his rival, including using his assistant (Scarlett Johanssen, pictured – once again showing her versatility) as a double agent, sending her to Alfred to discover the secrets behind his sensational new trick which involves teleporting the magician across the stage.
Cutter, a set designer (Michael Caine) finally reveals to Robert how Alfred’s trick is done – and this leads to more problems. Alfred has been using an old soak of an actor as a double.
But Robert thinks there must be more to it than that and so enlists the skills of boffin Nikolas Tesla (David Bowie) to build him a teleporting machine.
The film borrows one of Nolan’s favourite film making mediums of playing around with the chronological order of events, so we see a murder trial at the beginning of the film and then have to piece together the background.
Johanssen provides another reason for jealousy between the two, and her smouldering support role adds another dimension to their rival.
And the final word has to go to the set design. This Edwardian world of frock coats and top hats is brilliantly recreated and each scene is like a gorgeous picture which you will want to linger over.
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