Don't get me wrong from the title of this entry. I liked the Prestige. I liked the misdirection and twists and turns that director Christopher Nolan visits upon the viewer. It was a great Saturday-afternoon, sit-on-the-couch and eat popcorn rental. I was looking forward to this movie because I'm such a fan of Nolan, but ultimately, I can't say this was his best effort. This movie was slow and predictable, even if the path to the predictable outcome was not as predictable as the outcome itself. That is to say, the movie was one grand illusion with it's setup (the pledge) and its misdirection (the turn). Yet, the inevitable outcome (the prestige) I actually saw coming. It was one of the few movies where I smelled the ending a mile off, and it took such time to get there, I was ultimately unimpressed. What's more, the movie was released at or around the time of the release of the Illusionist, which contained similar plot elements but, I thought, was an ultimately better movie (though ultimately just as predictable). I guess I'm so jaded that magicians' tricks don't work on me so well. Unless done by David Copperfield. That's another story.
Rupert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) are top-notch illusionists who succumb to a bitter rivalry, endlessly envious of each other's abilities. This rivalry culminates when a trick of Borden's leads indirectly to the death of Angier's wife, once their beautiful assistant. The two then spend the entire movie trying to delve into each other's secrets, particularly each's individual take on the "Transporting Man," though each strike upon the other becomes a more serious and more harmful plot of revenge. The title comes from the explanation provided by Michael Caine's character, which indicates that each magic trick is comprised of three parts to which I've already cheekily referred: the setup or the Pledge, the misdirection or the Turn, and the payoff or the Prestige. At the beginning of the movie, we see Borden on trial for the murder of Angier. Flashbacks follow to set one up for the ultimate conclusion, and each flashback is punctuated by Angier or Borden's individual quest to best their rival, though Angier is painted as the more obsessed of the two (though Borden is apparently the more violent). Along the way, they meet David Bowie, Andy Serkis (aka Gollum), and Scarlett Johansson, an erstwhile lover and assistant first to Angier, and then to Borden (at Angier's curious, obsession-fueled request).
This movie was smartly filmed and never pandered to the viewing audience, which I appreciated. Nolan is the master of subtlety, and that subtlety was evident here. Hints and clues were sprinkled into each flashback. I love this director (and screenwriter) because non-linear storytelling seems to be his specialty and makes it appealing when my logical brain ultimately prefers linear storytelling. Memento was a superb movie and one of my favorites.
I think I started to get bored when the story attempted to humanize, albeit in a cursory, almost obligatory manner, the two lead characters. Magicians are people too, naturally, but these two magicians were less concerned with humanism than with their individual obsessions. Yet, they were presented in such a way as to try to force you to sympathize with one character or the other depending upon the flashback at hand. I guess I got bored with the ping-pong in that respect; the movie lost me when it tried to depict each character's failed attempts at being something more than magicians. I don't know if the actors or the director are to blame, but I ultimately felt no sympathy, at all, for either one and did not care what happened to either of them by the end of the movie. If that was the intention of the film, then it succeeded admirably, but I don't enjoy a movie where I am supposed to decide (or not) what is the lesser of two evils. If it was not the intention of the film, if it was all just an aim at cinematic illusion to match the obsessions of the two primary characters, then I was simply unimpressed by the trick. Yet, I still enjoyed the story and, to some extent, the ride.
I think I have to rate the Prestige a 7.5, somewhere between "shaky" and "minor flaws/very good." So, it's more like a "good" without the "very." As for my test, I don't think that it passes, unless I could buy it for, say, 5 bucks. I loved the idea and was intrigued by the movie, but it left me feeling less than awestruck in the end, and that was a bit disappointing. Still, with my love for Nolan, I may change my mind. Maybe I was in no mood for magic tricks when I decided to watch this film.