The Prestige (2006)

The Prestige tells the story of two rival magicians who are caught in a battle of One-upmanship and both become obsessed with discovering the secrets of the other's magic tricks.

The Prestige may be the strongest work from an already established director. Christopher Nolan with the prestige has taken a subject, maybe not obviously cinematic and turned it into a accomplished, slick film. While watching The Prestige i felt this sense of an "epic movie" (not to be confused with the crap comedy of this year) it had a certain style and way of story telling that felt different, in that it made you think and guess, which not many films bother to do anymore.

The performances are fantastic, Hugh Jackman i feel was a highlight, in the sense that i had only seen him as Wolverine before, so having this character with such depth, i was suprised how well he pulled it off. Bale also was great, especially begining to shine towards the end of the film when his character encounters issues and conflicts within his personal life. Michael Caine and Scarlett Johansson put in great supporting roles that give the film some extra depth.

One of my favourite aspects about the film was how it built tension, and the character study. How a lot of the tension was out of the complete greed of the two main characters. it's hard to explain without giving aspects away, but some of the way the tricks are acheived involve some very sinister methords. Such as use of doubles and their fate, is a very wellcomed "subplot" and adds to the tension of the film.

Some aspects of a sub story in which Hugh character meets a legendary magican called Tesla (played by David Bowie) seem a bit far fetched, but still interesting.

All in all, i will have to say it's quite hard to review this film , as it has a lot of twists and turns, so i have to be careful in what i say. However the final pay off is worth it, its fantastically done. Though even without the final pay off, it's a solid film. I really enjoyed the levels of issues going on (murder, adultery, Greed). That's what i loved, it was a great character study more than anything, these were both well studied, flawed characters that held my attention all way through. With only certain aspects of the Tesla subplot putting me off (was it going into sci fi??), overall this is a fantastic watch. It kept me on edge of my seat, guessing and suprised by the ending, it was an involving movie experience. One of the best of 2006, which was already a damn strong year.