Are YOU watching closely...?

Rating: 10/10 (17 April 2011)

A film about magicians, friendship, jealously and rivalry. It's very hard to sell this film and to try to explain it without giving too much of the (pardon the pun) 'magic' away. A tale of two magicians set in Victorian England where their friendship turns sour when an act they routinely perform goes horribly wrong. The pair part company and a rivalry ensues. A bitter feud emerges when they both try to outdo each other with an array of tricks and illusions. From the outset it may seem like this film is all about magic and the art of illusion, but it isn't.
Directed by Christopher Nolan, the film follows a similar structure to his previous effort Memento where the narrative doesn't start at A and follow on to B. Instead there is flashbacks and flash forwards, as the reveal and revelation is slowly bought forward. We embark on a merry-go-round where we are left guessing where it stops and where we get off, but the level of intrigue that it creates just keeps you wanting more. To truly enjoy, appreciate and most importantly understand the film, your attention is required from start to finish and focus must be retained throughout. It's not a film you can switch off and come back to.
From the off, we are given an explanation of the three part structure to every major trick, the pledge, the turn and the prestige. The prestige is the final reveal, the re-appearance from a disappearing act, making the impossible seem possible... What follows is a trail where the magician Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) accused of murdering his rival Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman). From there on in the story unfolds with Borden reading Angier's diary where the first flashback occurs and the start of complex twists and turns showing how they started out as friends and with the eventual fall out which turns them to bitter rivals, with Angier trying to uncover how Borden achieves his greatest magic trick 'the transported man' and out do him.
Funnily enough, this film so weirdly different and it's not what you'd expect. It set in Victorian England yet it never once feels like a period drama. Detail is key, as the focus is with the characters and never the background. Of course the costume and setting provides the backdrop for the story but the main theme is about obsession.
Both leads (Bale and Jackman) are on fine form and the rest of the supporting cast raises the bar. The performances are subtle and sublime, with the nuances and deliberate misdirection to mislead us into thinking who we see as the bad guy may not be the villain of the piece. That isn't to say that there is a villain but nothing is ever clear in this wonderfully realised screenplay.
Such an understated film with much to get your brain cells a work out, there's a lot to take in and you may not see everything the first time round but as the first lines mentions "are you watching closely?" there is a lot to admire about how the whole thing is constructed and like any great magic trick, the film only allows the audience enough details to carefully reveal the smaller pieces of a puzzle where we, the audience have to fit together to see the bigger picture. Is what we see the real truth or is there something more otherworldly, supernatural or unexplainable. With elements of science fiction thrown in you wonder whether things can get any weirder but when the final act is revealed you may well feel cheated or left feeling a sense of wonderment and just like a magic trick, you think to yourself, how did they pull that off? if you liked my review please visit my blog http://fsfilm.blogspot.com