[Frederica-l] NRO: The Prestige

[Frederica at aol.com]

"The Prestige" opened yesterday, and it's a pretty good story, though not 
told in an engaging way. (and there is some violence.) 

The inventor Nikola Tesla appears in the story, and I looked up a website 
about him. What a fascinating person.  
http://www.neuronet.pitt.edu/~bogdan/tesla/bio.htm  Was surprised to learn that he was the son of an Orthodox priest. 

If you'd rather read the review on my website: 
http://www.frederica.com/writings/the-prestige.html

*************
 
For the first few minutes of "The Prestige," I wondered if the projectionist 
had loaded the trailer by mistake. After a brief, surreal opening shot (but 
file it away for later), we hear wise old stage-magician Cutter (Michael Caine) 
describing in voice-over the three "acts" of a magic trick. 
 
First, he says, comes "The Pledge;" the performer shows the audience 
"something that appears ordinary, but of course -- it probably isn't." Next, in "the 
Turn," he must "make his ordinary something do something extraordinary" - fly 
away, turn into something else, disappear. But that's not the end; the audience 
expects more. It's not enough to make something disappear, "you have to bring 
it back." That third step is called "the Prestige." 
 
All this is helpful information, but you wonder why it's jammed into the 
first few minutes of the movie. Usually a film takes its time unfolding, and the 
gradual, teasing disclosure of an obscure title's meaning is one of the 
pleasures of viewing. Here the data is thrown out with brisk efficiency, as if 
there's going to be a pop quiz later. 
 
This sort of mishandling runs through "The Prestige," the latest from 
talented director Christopher Nolan, who showed his chops in "Memento" (2000) and 
"Batman Begins" (2005). A good magic trick is seductive, but a half hour into 
this film I *still* felt like I was watching a jumpy, agitated trailer. As we 
were marched smartly through the plot points, it seemed that the story was not so 
much developing as echoing, like a child doggedly repeating piano scales. 
These patterns may have created a pleasing symmetry in the novel by Christopher 
Priest (Nolan and his brother Jonathan made the adaptation), but on the screen 
it was just tiring. 
 
The story isn't a bad one, really. It concerns two young men in 1890's London 
who are employed as Cutter's stage assistants. Alfred Borden (Christian Bale, 
star of "Batman Begins") is a rough-hewn fellow with an innate gift for 
sleight-of-hand, though he's not much of a hand at showmanship. His friend Rupert 
Angier (Hugh Jackman, Wolverine of the "X-Men" films - and, as a young friend 
noted, how bad can a movie be that stars Batman and Wolverine?) is upper-crust, 
and conceals his identity to pursue a career in magic without tarnishing the 
family name. Angier has the stage presence that Borden lacks, but perhaps less 
of his natural talent. 
 
Early in the film a tragedy occurs that plants everlasting enmity between the 
men. From there it gets rough fast. A scene soon follows in which one tries 
to kill the other, who escapes at the cost of two fingers -- and that's just 
the start. The stakes go very high, very quickly, but we haven't yet had a 
chance to become emotionally engaged with these characters. 
 
In a story like this, one that follows an interpersonal battle, the viewer 
needs some reason to feel some sympathy toward at least one of the lead 
characters. Perhaps it's simple, and there's a bad guy and a good guy. Or maybe - even 
more satisfyingly -- both guys have just reason to be grieved, and both are 
flawed. But in "The Prestige," although Angier's quest is interesting, he's not 
particularly likeable, and comes across as obsessive and somewhat brittle. 
Borden, his opposite number, is no better, and appears loutish and unfaithful 
(Rebecca Hall is wonderful as his long-suffering wife, Sarah). Scarlett Johansen 
is appealing, as always, but her role as stage assistant and mistress of each 
man in turn seems more like set-dressing and less like a plot necessity. At 
one point she simply vanishes from the story, and nobody makes her reappear. 
 
A good part of the middle of the film takes place, surprisingly, in Colorado 
Springs, where one of the characters has gone to implore Nikola Tesla (David 
Bowie) to build a device for him. (The real-life Tesla was an exceptionally 
creative inventor, who rivaled Thomas Edison in the development of electricity 
technology. As a rhyme then current had it, "Nature and nature's laws lay hid in 
night; God said 'Let Tesla be!' and all was light.")  In the course of this 
thread in the story, we cross the line from mere magic tricks to something 
Cutter terms "wizardry" - that is, when what happens is no longer simply an 
illusion. This is the point at which movie viewers are going to sort into two camps. 
Some will find this departure annoying and unbelievable, while others find it 
delightful. Put me in the latter camp. As the film drew to its conclusion I 
felt that it had at last found something daring and astonishing to present - 
even though it took a bumpy ride to get there. 
 

********
Frederica Mathewes-Green
www.frederica.com
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