The Prestige

Just watched "The Prestige" and it didn't fall short of expectations.

Director Christopher Nolan combines his touch in "Memento" - flashbacks- and "Batman Begins" - the dark brooding mood - to conjure a tale of obsession and rivalry, with laudable performances from Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, and of course not to forget, the sizzling Scarlett Johansson. Christian Bale, especially, has proven himself to be a competent actor, transforming convincingly from obssessive-compulsive magician to loving husband and father between scenes as the mercurial Borden.

If you are hoping to see the grand theatrics of magic or to get a glimpse of the secrets of the trade, you would be better served by watching David Copperfield, or reading "The Vanished Man", a brilliant novel by Jeffrey Deaver. The movie is skimpy on illusions and tricks, but instead, revolves around this one particular trick called "The Transported Man". But that does not make the movie any less entertaining or suspenseful, for you would find yourself hankering for the secret to the trick as much as Jackman's character, Angier, only to get hold of the truth at the end of the movie (or earlier if you're smart enough) after a series of twists and turns.

I guessed the secret before the "Reveal" (yeah, I am smart!) - Angier's one is a dead giveaway, Borden's comes to light nearer the end. The plot and flashbacks are pretty well-executed, except the "Reveal", which seems a little abrupt and coerced. "Nolan and his talented screenwriting brother Jonathan, working from Christopher Priest's novel, loop backward and forward in time, shuffling their deck to reveal their wild cards at unsuspected moments", according to a critic.

Very aptly put by the same critic, "[Nolan]'s the rare Hollywood director who isn't concerned with making his heroes likeable. For some audiences, who like to have a clear rooting interest in their stories, this might be a drawback: here you may find your sympathies (such as they are) shifting back and forth. We don't warm to Borden and Angier, nor should we: they are men deformed by their obsessions. This is a thriller aimed more at the cerebrum than the solar plexus."

An interesting sidestory involves some rivalry between Nikola Tesla (played by a marvellous David Bowie) and Thomas Edison, and the former's lament that the world has yet to catch up with his ideas, which I found, surprisingly, to have some historical basis after doing a little reading up. He's also quite as eccentric as portrayed in the movie, and lived in Colorado Springs. This rivalry "suggests an actual historical counterpart to Angier and Borden’s struggle for dominance", which is a nice touch.