Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The Prestige - A Review

I came across this movie a few months ago and I was kind of obsessed with it for a week or two. This is a movie of a different kind. Directed by Christopher Nolan (of “The Dark Knight” fame), this movie revolves around the life of two magicians. Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) were assistants to a magician along with Julia McCullough (Piper Perabo), who is Angier’s wife. During one of the shows, Julia is accidentally drowned while performing a trick. Angier blames Borden for the death of his wife as Borden had tied a new knot on Julia’s hands leading to her death. This creates hatred between the two.

Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman

Angier and Borden start their own shows individually with Cutter (Michael Caine) being Angier’s engineer and Olivia (Scarlett Johansson) as his assistant, while Borden works with Fallon, his engineer. Both Angier and Borden set out to destroy each others career. Borden brings out a new trick called, “The Transported Man”, where he throws a ball and go through a door and instantly comes out of the other door to catch the ball. Angier is obsessed on finding out how he plays the trick. But later he creates a similar act, gaining more audiences on his side.

The story follows the two magicians' lives, their tricks, sacrifices and their obsession to find out each others secrets. The story taking place on late 18th century also collides with the lives of the scientists Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison.

Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman

Both Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale played their roles to perfection. Joan Bergin’s costumes were attractive. Scarlett Johansson was very pretty in her 18th century attire. The movie is full of secrets and suspense right from scene one and at the end of every scene, a secret or a suspense is revealed. Watch out for the climax!

This movie would keep you on the edge till the end and its a 'Must Watch movie'.

My ratings:

Overall - 9.7/10

Screenplay - 9.5/10

Editing - 9.9/10

Costume - 9.8/10

2 comments:

Inchara Prakash said...

If you see the scene where cutter, borden and angier were discussing after a show, borden was bored of the usual stuffs and wanted to do something new and risky. He suggests tying a new knot for which she replies she can untie any knot. What Borden actually did was foolish rather than planned.

And Cutter wasnt supporting anyone. He was simply working for a living. But when he realised that he had a hand in the death of Borden, he turned against Angier...

Inchara Prakash said...

what really kept me wondering is, in which scenes did Borden appear and which scenes did Fallon???