Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more

The Prestige (2006)

Director: Christopher Nolan

Average user rating

11 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

With ‘Following’, ‘Memento’, ‘Insomnia’ and the uncommonly smart blockbuster ‘Batman Begins’, Christopher Nolan has established himself as a filmmaker fascinated by the fluid, tricksy contingencies of memory, identity, narrative and time: the way we depend on the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, and the little slips and dodges, ignorant or willed, that allow us to keep those stories straight – at least for a while. Selfhood emerges from these films as a rickety trick, an illusion dependent on misdirection and oversight. Apt, then, that the director’s latest is a story about magicians.

Nolan’s first period picture, ‘The Prestige’ shares the fractured chronology common to his earlier work. Based in turn-of-the-last-century London, the plot centres on two ambitious young illusionists: flashy, easygoing Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman, abetted, as in ‘Batman Begins’, by Michael Caine) and the more original but less extrovert Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). Fellow apprentices turned bitter rivals after a grisly onstage accident, their escalating feud is a game of cat and mouse played out in a hall of mirrors, set in cramped prison cells and Colorado expanses as well as theatres, as they compete to deliver the most spectacular version of a teleportation trick that calls for something like real magic.

Jackman and Bale make impressive tango partners, neither wholly sympathetic nor villainous, each drawing out the synergy between his character’s personality and his onstage style. It’s a handsome film, too, beautifully photographed by Wally Pfister in a chocolate-and-cinnamon sepia palette flashed with electric blue. But ‘The Prestige’ languishes in a structural Catch-22 of its own making. Explicitly modelled on the pattern of a magic trick, it’s also bound to the rules of the mystery thriller genre; yet the one relies on lingering uncertainty, the other on full disclosure. And in devoting so much room to hollow romantic subplots, the film ends up breaking two of the magician’s cardinal rules: not only does it tell you how it’s all done, it takes so long about it that you’ve got time to look up its sleeves and work it out for yourself.

Author: Ben Walters 2006-11-07 11:14:52

Time Out London Issue 1890: November 8-15 2006

Bookmark

User reviews of this film

googlebear said...

Posted on Sep 20 2007 10:23 I feel people here are mean ><

Report as inappropriate
Cockmuncher said...

Posted on Sep 20 2007 10:19 Hey really ?
you wanna go to full frontal fridays ?? i'v ebeen twice before .. the first time i went i went with my mum when she used to work there
the second time i was pissed and dont really remember it
yeah i usppose that when you ruin films its only becuase you want to get there first and i forgive you for that
so then me and you in london at full frontal fridays getting a lapdance from asian ladyboys eating toffee popcorn ... sounds like my idea of fun

Report as inappropriate
film ruiner said...

Posted on Sep 20 2007 10:16 i fink we shud forget r trubles and go down to full fruntal fridays down london becoz how much we have r differences i also like asian lady boys nd i also dont like wen people ruin movies which is y i get der first hahahaHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!
i also injoy da occasional toffee popcorn

Report as inappropriate
cockmuncher said...

Posted on Sep 20 2007 10:10 hey hey hey
whats all this about ??
penis vagina like chin ?!
you ruined the film for me
you see i was about to sit down with a nice bowl of toffe popcprn and then i looked at this website and saw what you wrote .. so now the film is ruined for me
and now i hav nothing to do with myself this evining ... but i suppose i could jsut stay on the internet and look at dirty pictures of asian ladyboys =]
oh and if you kill me back .. i'll kill you twice as hard

Report as inappropriate
film ruiner said...

Posted on Sep 20 2007 10:07 cockmuncher u penis likin vagina chin...
i very much like cock nd da munchin part but u im afraid sicken methe very core of my being tells me to stop rytin da end of films butmy cock is tellin me YES YES !!!
if u eva cum to my house nd kill me i will not apreciate it nd kill u back

Report as inappropriate
Cockmuncher said...

Posted on Sep 20 2007 10:03 Hey film ruininer you dick .. i think that your well out i just wanned to see the film and you ruined it for me ... in fact i'm going to kill you in your sleep tonight

Report as inappropriate
GoogleBear said...

Posted on Sep 20 2007 10:02 Confuzing.

Report as inappropriate
Film ruiner said...

Posted on Sep 20 2007 10:00 at da end it turns out dat da machine dusnt teleport him it duplicates him and due to this he must kill the evil droids every tym he takes part in this life fretenin act. also chris bale has actually got an identical twin brother .fallen the ignenour is his identical twin but he constantly wheres makeup so he luks different sum tyms dey mi and match which is y he has an affair wit scarlett its not border its actually fallen

Report as inappropriate
jen said...

Posted on Sep 20 2007 09:57 Good film i feel =]

Report as inappropriate
liam said...

Posted on Sep 20 2007 09:54 forgot to give it stars so here i go again

Report as inappropriate
liam said...

Posted on Sep 20 2007 09:53 best mvie eva!!!!!

Report as inappropriate