electronicalifornia

I saw The Prestige last night. It’s good…very good.

I don’t say that about a lot of movies and with most movies I am excited about I actually come out dissapointed that it didn’t fulfill my expectations. Christopher Nolan proves he is a master of storytelling. Most suspense/thriller type films keep the secret from the diegesis (within the narrative) while showing it to the audience. This is what causes the tension. We know there is someone around the corner but the maiden in distress does not. Nolan doesn’t tell us what is happening (though he actually does if you are paying attention) and the characters of the story don’t tell us. This makes for a slow start to the film, but results in a breathtaking finish. At times I smiled at the whit, other times I wanted to clap and in the end I just sat silently during the credits, my mind still running over the details.

The acting, set design and costumes were also superb. David Bowie was great, and as usual Christian Bale was amazing. You also can’t go wrong with Michael Caine. The real shining star of the film, I thought, was Hugh Jackman. The whole film you are wanting to find someone to cheer for, but no one is quite right and you will most likely find yourself rooting for the wrong side. I was worried that I was gonna find it hard not to see Wolverine vs. Batman, but the thought never crossed my mind.

As usual, many reviewers missed the whole point of the film. They were “unwowed” by the ending or thought the characters were unrelatable.

If a story was all about the ending it would be called an ending, not a story and if your not a turn of the century English magician, than you can’t relate anyways.

I hate to used a cliched term, but this movie is truly filmmaking the way it is supposed to be.