Barnaby Walter, 03/11/2008
I decided to watch The Prestige as I had recently seen it in Empire film magazine"s top 500 greatest movies of all time. While watching Christopher Nolan"s pre-Dark Knight period piece, you can"t help feeling you are part of a bigger event than just watching a movie. In the film two rival magicians attempt to threaten each other, sleep with each other"s lovers and steal each other"s tricks. The two leads are played by Australian actor Hugh Jackman (playing an American) and Welsh actor Christian Bale of Batman fame (playing a cockney). If these accents weren"t enough Scarlett Johansson is dragged in, demonstrating a rather poorly handled English accent, diving between the Queen"s English and stretched cockney vowels. However, the problems of Miss Johansson aside, this Victorian drama is brilliantly staged, with the plot switching time and location so that, in the end, all the pieces of the story fit perfectly. Michael Caine (another actor in the cast also seen in Nolan"s Batman films) is blinding as the brains behind the spectacles, but an even bigger, if more understated, guest-star is David Bowie as an eerie scientist who is commissioned by Jackman"s magician to make a duplicating machine. When the duplication business occurs the film does start to have a hint of fantasy silliness about it (and gets too far fetched for words) but the stylish production values never fail to entertain. The twist at the end is slightly unsatisfactory (more explaining would have been nice) but a gasp realization moment is what it delivers, and, to be fair, it delivers it stunningly.
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Jay Harvey, 25/02/2007
With twist, after twist, after twist, 'The Prestige' truly is magic!
A beautifully crafted film, from a spectacualar director (Christoper Nolan), which will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout!
'The Prestige' follows two rival magicians, Robert (Jackman) and Alfred (Bale), who intensively try to out do each other. As obsession, jealousy and desperation take over, who will win?
The pledge... the turn... and definitely the prestige!
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