The Prestige

In the opening moments of The Prestige, Michael Caine explains the meaning of the title--a magic trick has three acts: the Pledge, when a magician shows the audience a common object, The Turn, when something extraordinary is done to that object, and The Prestige, when the object is returned to its normal state. Any savvy viewer will immediately be alerted that this film is going to follow the same structure, and we will be misdirected and there will be a surprise ending. I think that this ultimately hurts the film. Like someone watching a magician to try to figure out "how they do it," instead of just enjoying the show, I spent my time watching The Prestige wondering what the twist at the end would be.

This is still a good film. It chronicles the rivalry between two magicians at the end of the nineteenth century, Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. One of them does irreparable harm to the other when they are both working as assistants to another magician, and they spend the rest of their lives exacting revenge. In this way it kind of reminded me of the old Spy vs. Spy cartoons in Mad Magazine. There are a lot of disguises and coded diaries and duplicity on the part of assistants, but what I found lacking was a heart. Unlike The Illusionist, which I have to compare this film to because of its subject matter and the close proximity of release, I didn't think The Prestige had a powerful emotional center.

One of the more enjoyable aspects was the casting of David Bowie as electricity pioneer Nicola Tesla. I recognized him immediately, mainly because I could see that he had two different color eyes. Scarlett Johansson played an assistant who is drawn into the rivalry. It's the third film I've seen her in this year, and the third time I've wondered what's happened to her since she was so good in Ghost World and Lost in Translation. There is an attempt at an English accent, but it comes and goes. The two leads are fine but not extraordinary.

I am fascinated by pre-television era magic, and this film scratched that itch, I just didn't think it was a top-tier film.