Dead Hats, Squashed Birds

Rating: Null/10 (24 November 2006)

Let's face it, there aren't many good writers for cinema. Yet the bar has gotten higher while certain narrative structures have become more acceptable. Nolan has earned a place as one of the best without a Spanish surname.
It seems he starts with a notion of multiple parallelisms in narrative, then fleshes them out using some of the techniques common in or best literature, but always envisioned first cinematically. The five parallelisms here are:
 Warring magicians (mirrored by the warring real life magicians Tesla and Edison).
 The realities of life and pretended or performed life, with the common fold of the play we see and the performance(s) they make.
 Multiple existence of beings
 Different slices of time as the narrative is unrolled backwards and forwards in bits.
 The way the stories are recounted in two overlapping diaries, each a lure. Pay particular attention to this, and the fairly literate references, starting with Van Helsing and covering at least a few Shakespearean phrases.
Its therefore 5 times more clever, engaging and rewarding than "The Illusionist," itself a competent oneway fold.
Spend some time with this. That Batman thing went over well with some folks, I know. But it was a waste of talent. This is where the man belongs. Welcome home Chris. Stay away from comics.
The acting is irrelevant. Good thing.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.