Thank goodness!
The Prestige is a terrific movie and I thank great goodness for that. When the movie was released that fall it was on the top of my must-see lists. However, my new born son doesn't let me get out to the theatre as much as I used to, so I had to wait until it came out on DVD. We finally got around to having a free evening and the movie was at the videostore, so we rented. Ever since
Memento, I've had very high expectations from Chris Nolan. As such,
Insomnia ultimately disappointed, but
Batman Begins blew me away. Now,
The Prestige... so, so, so good. The two leads are terrific. Christian Bale just gets better and better. He smolders, he looks dangerous and angry, is tender, is funny, is smart. As for Hugh Jackman, there is no danger of him being typecast as Wolverine. In fact, the more I see of him, the less Wolverine I see (which means when I see Wolverine, I see only Wolverine and not some singing, dancing Aussie actor). Michael Caine, as with
Children of Men, shows why he is one of the greatest movie star actors of all time. The movie looks fabulous and it full of atmosphere, interesting ideas, and surprises. The only real complain I have is with Scarlett Johansson. She really didn't add anything to this movie. In fact, I wish another actress had been cast so that I was distracted by the expectation of young Scarlett. But, that is trivial. Well done to Chris Nolan and everyone who was involved in the making of
The Prestige.