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Rival magicians battle in smart, dark period tale. PG minutes. Rate movie. Watch or buy. Based on 21 reviews. Based on 68 reviews. Get it now Searching for streaming and purchasing options Common Sense is a nonprofit organization. Your purchase helps us remain independent and ad-free. Get it now on Searching for streaming and purchasing options X of Y Official trailer.
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Positive Messages. Mild profanity: a couple of instances of "s--t," as well as "damn" and "ass. What you will learn in the movie is, I believe, a disappointment -- nothing but a trick about a trick. With a sinking heart, I realized that "The Prestige" had jumped the rails, and that rules we thought were in place no longer applied.
I have been in love with magic all my life. I'm no good at it, even though I bored my friends for years with cheesy illusions, and even today can make a dime disappear from your forehead.
These days I am most impressed with the skills required for close-up magic. Teddy Nava, the son of writer-directors Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas , can make cards change while I am holding them in my hands. Now how does he do that? Not through divine intervention, I am fairly sure. But I was holding them! The trick is told when the trick is sold. Yes, but what if it takes months of practice after you're told the trick? Nikola Tesla isn't going to help me then, by running alternating current down Teddy's arm and up mine.
Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from until his death in In , he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. Rated PG for violence and disturbing images. The acting is solid throughout, even as the plot-gimmicks become more and more ridiculous, leading to a depressing and flat conclusion. In 'magic' it's all about the third act! The Prestige. TxMike 15 March The whole plot involves two magicians who are competing ever since they were magician helpers together.
Their jealousy and desire to learn of each others' best magic tricks provide the tension in the story. Hugh Jackman is Robert Angier, eventually the lesser of the two, and who spends much of the movie time trying to avenge a death.
Michael Caine is Cutter who designs the illusions and equipment, and is ready backstage with an ax in case the escape from the water tank is not made on time.
Scarlett Johansson with British accent as Olivia Wenscombe becomes the 4th member of the circle. She at first assists Angier, but he sends her to get a job with Borden, to learn the secret to his "transported man" trick. An interesting casting is David Bowie as Nikola Tesla, a real historical scientist who experimented with electricity. Many recognize his name for the "Tesla coil. We found it a very interesting 2 hours.
All the cast members are good and the twists and turns held our attention. Early when Angier and Borden are working together, and Angier's young wife is part of the act, she drowns after being dropped into the water tank because she cannot get out of the wrist knot that Borden tied, and thus could not reach around and unlock the trick lock.
Angier never forgives Borden, and much later a trial found Borden guilty of killing someone else and sentenced to a hanging. Eventually Angier develops a transported man illusion, using a very close double they find, on one side of the stage Angier opens a door to conceal his dropping below the stage, while behind the door on the other side of the stage the double surfaces from beneath. Trouble with the double doubt planted by Borden in a pub cut that act short.
Meanwhile Borden was doing his amazing trick and only at the end, while Angier is dying, do we learn that there were 2 Bordens, identical twins. One was loyal to his wife, the other was in love with Olivia.
There was no cheating. Within that story, was a highly fictional one where Angier paid Tesla to develop an electrical device which "transported" him by actually creating an exact double of himself, which of course he had to drown each performance to hide the fact. He framed Borden with one of those drownings. The story is told in flashback until close to the end of the film. Angier and Borden start out as friends and colleagues, working as a magician's assistant. Tragedy strikes, and they become mortal enemies.
Each becomes famous as a magician, and when Borden performs the ultimate illusion, Angier becomes obsessed with trying to find out how he did it and becomes determined to top it.
This is an excellent film that will have you with your jaw on the ground at the end. In my own case I had to go back and re-watch the ending. This isn't a movie you can watch and zone out - the plot requires active following, as Nolan switches points of view between Angier and Borden, and skips from the past to the present. However, he does it with a master's skill. All of the actors - and the casting is superb - are in top form, with Caine giving an steady performance as the old magician who tries to keep Angier grounded and David Bowie as the mysterious Nikola Tesla.
Jackman and Bale are well-matched as adversaries - both volatile and ambitious, driven men. Like a magician, Nolan distracts the viewer with one thing and then pulls a rabbit out of the hat.
Sheer brilliance. You'll want to see this movie again. Highly recommended. Quinoa 29 October The Prestige is like a machine of tricks and wonders, and it ends up pulling off a lot more than it might have not been able to chew. He focuses so well on the two main characters, and the people focused around them, that there's no need to really feel as if one is being pulled away from the real emotional drive of each character.
It's basically one big game that becomes something very dangerous once obsession becomes part of it as Michael Caine's character notes is what children do.
But all the while I went along totally well with what the story went through, in all its twists and pulling seemingly simple little turns out of a hat, because Nolan made the storytelling seamless and has actors that are utterly dependable and pitch-perfect in their roles. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman play the magicians, who start out as partners under the tutelage of Michael Caine's Cutter, who perform acts of not-totally-simple 'magic', which follow three main principles which are listed by Cutter at the start and end of the picture.
After a tragedy that befalls their assistant Piper Perablo , the rivalry and, more crucially, the aims and wills of each side is put into play. On one side is Bale's Borden, who is, according to Jackman's Angier, living his entire life as a trick, which may not be far from the truth hope that doesn't spoil things.
On the other is Angier, who becomes involved with the burgeoning technology of Nikola Tesla David Bowie, who is one of the lesser factors of actors in the film , who may be able to figure out how to make something truly unbelievable. Their fates become entangled in each side's pursuit to out-do the other in the public eye, with Cutter and the change-around mistress Scarlet Johanssen, in a spiffy English accent that works , on the sidelines.
What makes a lot of this more compelling that it almost has a right to be is how much we're steeped into the mind-sets of these characters, who they get fractured by their own separate ambitions amid their skills. One is a better magician, while the other is a better showman, and each can't stand the other's talents in the midst of being somewhat intrigued and drawn to a kind of madness.
And yet at the same time the personal also finds its way into the trickery of the film, and actually grounds things- seemingly of course- particularly with Borden's wife Rebecca Hall, one of the best in the film acting-wise who feels betrayed by the pack of lies and secrecy. The fates then of both characters becomes that of dealing with mortality, and how one can cheat death or not, or again, and again.
Towards the end it does teeter much on becoming one extra ending that might not be needed, or a couple of minutes that feel packed in too tight. But all the while Jackman and Bale are constantly compelling, with little things they have in their characters that make them very much real for us, and then makes the final twist not too unworthy of what led up to it. It's like a twist mountain, or rather, a prestige. It might not be the best kind of 'prestige' I've seen, yet I still highly recommend it as a cool treat of splendid storytelling in a story that teeters on leaving the audience with too much of a gasp in the extraordinary, and has just enough to pull back and have a few good surprises.
It's one of the best productions to come out this season. When I watched The Prestige with my friend and some of his siblings and friends, I partly fell asleep during some of the passages so I'm not sure if I got the gist of the plot. But I did understand that it went back and forth in time and I understood most of what happened, I'm just not sure if it was compelling enough to really care about what happens during the whole thing.
Maybe if I were to watch again with a more alert eye I'd give this one a better rating but for now I'm giving this one a 5. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman have a field day torturing each other and ultimately all who see this nonsense.
As two magicians, one's mistake led to the tragic death of Jackman's wife and the two spend the rest of the picture trying to outsmart the other. Interesting to see Daniel Davis show up in this film as a British judge. He received well deserved praise as Niles, the butler, in the television show "The Nanny. The film is hopelessly confusing as we go on. It is never properly explained who these Edison people were and what they were actually trying to do.
The end is a joke and a mystifying one at that. Veteran pro Michael Caine is in this for the ride I guess. Don't run to see magic shows when you see this eerie film. Strange things are happening. Coventry 15 January Performing magic shows is literally a 'tricky' business. Unquestionably these magicians are good artists, as they have to disguise a presumably very simple and logical trick and build a whole show around it, but at the same time the whole concept quickly tends to get boring. Just because you automatically presume there's a simple explanation for every illusion, you risk losing interest and I was more or less worrying that the movie would suffer from this exact same problem.
It isn't very interesting to hear Michael Caine enlightening us about the different phases of a successful trick and it's even less interesting to constantly hear about two beginning magicians wanting to become the biggest performers of their time. Personally, I wasn't really hoping for a thriller revealing a lot of magic-secrets. And for the largest part, The Prestige actually delivers! The man in the director's chair is Christopher Nolan, and both "Memento" and "Insomnia" already proved he's a terrific storyteller, as he has the talent to bring an ordinary tale much more complex than it actually is.
Nolan once again uses as irregular narrative structure, with jumps back and forward into time and well-camouflaged hints that eventually all lead to a gigantically grotesque denouement. Robert Angier Hugh "Wolverine" Jackman and Alfred Borden Christian "Batman Begins" Bale are two gifted pupils of the already legendary 'engineer' Cutter Michael Caine , both treasuring the ambition to become the nation's biggest magician.
A regretful accident, resulting in Angier's wife tragic death on stage, causes their friendship to turn into intense competition and pretty soon they spend even more time sabotaging each other's shows than actually building up their own acts. When Alfred Borden eventually presents his perplexing Transported Man trick and Angier can't possibly decipher the logic behind it, the rivalry turns into a dangerous obsession that will require large sacrifices.
The main attraction of this film is probably meant to be the guessing along for the tricks and the detailed exposition of a handful of basic magical acts, but honestly that whole aspect impressed me the least. With just a tad bit of concentration and the experience of having seen similar mystery-thrillers, the red herrings are fairly transparent. Also, the whole set-up of Robert Angiers ultimate act with the help of pop star David Bowie in a remarkable role is simply impossible to take serious.
Whatever remains, however, is definitely worth watching. The mysterious late 19th Century set pieces are intriguing, especially the transporting machinery which seems to be inspired by the "telepods" in David Cronenberg's "The Fly".
The detailed illustration of magical tricks didn't really fascinate me, although there's one notable exception: the disappearing canary! It's a cruel and pretty offensive old-school trick, but hilarious in case you have a weird sense of humor. Quite embarrassing, because I was the ONLY person in a sold-out theater who was laughing with this sequence.
The acting performances are top-notch, but with an ensemble cast like this we wouldn't accept it any other way. Particularly Christian Bale is terrific, since his naturally mysterious charisma is ideal for a role as a magician. Scarlett Johansson's part is rather small, but her beautiful appearance helps cheering up the dark sets a lot. An error has occured. Please try again. The behavioral shifts, which are of course just the differences between the two twins, come at a point in the narrative where things are beginning to fall apart for the character of Borden.
Thus, as a viewer, we believe the sudden changes in behavior are just signs of a man losing grip and not the truth that he is two men.
Finally, there is the layering of themes and subtext that make the film so suitable for re-watching. With themes spanning from obsession and ambition to the importance of storytelling and the fragility of reality, each repeated viewing becomes a study of a new theme and a new approach to watching the film. The intensity of the themes that the film embodies, the tragedy at the heart of the story, and the experienced hand of Nolan guiding the cast have all lead to some truly compelling performances.
The real standout here is Jackman. And Jackman tackles the role with such a relatable desperation it mesmerizes. His performance is so central to the narrative it carries the momentum of the film and makes it so engaging. It is a truly nuanced performance that gently respects the differences between the brothers without revealing too much.
Of course the ever-reliable Caine is perfect as our tour guide into the world of magicians and engineered magic. Sarah becomes increasingly unstable the further Borden, and his ambition, descends into his obsessive competition with Angier. When the two brothers begin to loose grip on their act, leading to Sarah feeling more and more isolated and desperate.
There is a reason that Nolan is considered one of the greatest directors of his generation. A narrative as complicated as this one, one which depends on its own prestige to be shocking and unpredictable, is a hard one to pull off. As stated before, because of this careful plotting he has made the film perfect for repeated viewings. Nolan crafted a story that relies on its characters perspective and plays with the expectations of his audience and his characters simultaneously.
He crafts a sub plot about science and its potential for actual magic and leads us all to believe that this is the great secret the plot wishes to conceal.
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