a basic tale of one-up-manship, but done in a great fashion of professional storytelling and acting

Rating: 9/10 (29 October 2006)

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. Co-writer/director Christopher Nolan is very much in his territory here with this picture, and the sort of jigsaw-figure-out effect he had on his breakthrough Memento is redeployed here in a style that is never too deterring. 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.