Movie Review

The Prestige

Want a definitive picture of what "The Prestige" is? Imagine Harry Potter and Ron Weasley; now take out the friendship angle, the actual magic angle, and any sense of wonderment and replace all that with two bickering prima donnas. The two characters at the center of this story are Robert (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred (Christian Bale). First meeting as stagehands to another magician, the two become mortal enemies when one commits a terrible mistake that kills the wife of the other. Both take separate tracks after that, becoming magicians in their own right. Only the feud continues to grow, and soon both men seek revenge against the other.

Director Christopher Nolan?s flick is hard to follow ? an all over the place mess that interchanges between the past and the present, Robert?s story and Alfred?s story. He makes us work, but unlike "Memento,? there is no real payoff. These two men become increasingly jealous and upset by the other?s success, but after a while that plot point starts to wear thin. Only we have a long way to go before we finally get to the movie?s ?prestige,? so for the most part I started taking in the production values, which are fantastic.

The 1800?s London set and costume design are cool. The tone is effectively dark, and all the gadgets and magical sleights of hand are fun to watch. And Bale and Jackman couldn?t have been better cast. Bale roughly captures Alfred?s lower class status while Jackman brings panache and charm to Robert. And both actors give their characters a pompous "I?m better than you" quality that keeps the feud rolling pretty well.

Nolan wants to make us think there is more to this than meets the eye, but the fight for dominance and power between the two men, as well as the finale (in which we finally learn the secret of the main trick, Transporting Man) all seems very standard. The relationship between Robert and Alfred is based merely on cheating and lying, and the finale features one of the oldest screenplay writing tricks in the book. Not to mention that the plot spins so wildly out of control that by the end Nolan needs a ten-minute scene just to explain how this ending could even be possible.

"The Prestige" is an over two-hour movie with an unfortunately average story; usually not my favorite type of film. The cast, which also includes Scarlett Johansson as a showgirl, and David Bowie as a mad scientist, is fantastic. But that only makes Christopher Nolan?s latest flick even more of a disappointment. Like the magic it showcases, this movie is little more than a well-packaged put-on.

Craig's Grade: C+

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%