It is explained to us in the first 5 minutes of Christopher Nolan’s latest
offering, The Prestige, that there are three parts to any magic trick; the first act is called 'The Pledge'; the magician shows you something ordinary, but of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called 'The Turn'; the magician makes his ordinary something do something extraordinary. Now if you're looking for the secret... you won't find it, that's why there's a third act called, 'The Prestige'; this is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you've never seen before...
These words, spoken with some clout by Michael Caine, who is having something of a rejuvenation of recent with excellent supporting roles in Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of men, and as Alfred the butler in his first collaboration with Nolan in Batman Begins. These words sum up this foreboding mystery of rival illusionists in the turn of the 20th century. The film reveals itself as a straight forward murder mystery but the twist is (a la Nolan’s masterpiece Memento) that the film is not told in chronological order and is instead pieced together like a mixed up puzzle; the idea being that the film itself is a cinematic magic trick, a ‘Prestige’.
Along with Michael Caine, Christian Bale is returning to work with Nolan after his beefed up and very scary interpretation of The Dark Knight. He plays Alfred Borden, a working class cockney with rare magical talent, the film opens with him on trial for the murder of his arch rival, magician Rupert Angier (Jackman) from this point Nolan cuts between the happenings of the trial and its aftermath, and the beginnings and evolutions of their bitter rivalry as their jealousy and hate for each other becomes darker and more obsessive as they attempt to sabotage each other’s magic acts.
The film feels like an epic. It stretches over a long period and is lavishly designed and beautifully photographed in an almost bleak and industrial style, and with a modest budget of forty million dollars it is most certainly a cinematic achievement to marvel at. One of Nolan’s main achievements is in the cutting of the film it has a quite gradual pace built up by our ever developing understanding of the plot through Nolan’s disjointed story telling technique, some feel this style is an excuse for a poor plot but The Prestige hooks you and relentlessly pulls you in to the story’s murky tumult.
The uncovering of future star Piper Perabo should come about in her very impressive turn as Julia Angier and a slightly confusing (I can’t tell where the hell in Europe you are supposed to be from) cameo from David Bowie as the wacky eccentric Nikolas Tesla, the insane Doc. responsible for the creation of the movie’s key tricks. To attempt a poster-slogan endorsement The Prestige is: Solid filmmaking, as entertaining and thought provoking as any other movie of the year and is on par with Memento as Nolan’s best work to date.