‘The Prestige’ is worth seeing, but…
October 28, 2006I caught The Prestige, the new flick from director Christopher Nolan (he directed Memento and Batman Begins). It stars Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as two young magicians in turn-of-the-century London who start out as apprentices and turn into bitter rivals.
David Bowie does a nice guest role as Nicola Tesla, the famed engineer and scientist. And dependable old Michael Caine is once again superb in a supporting role. I do however have a minor quibble with the flick, and that is the magic device Tesla creates for Jackman’s character.
I won’t give it away, since it’s a pivotal piece of the movie. The thing is, up to that point everything in the movie is believable. Stuff that really could have gone down during that time period in Western history. But the Tesla device is out of left field, and that’s what makes it so disconcerting.
Sure there’s been movies with more wildly unbelievable devices but those movies are generally science fiction. Like “the Force” in Star Wars, for example. In other words, the whole movie requires suspending disbelief anyway so one weird device doesn’t phaze you much. But in a movie so grounded in reality, the presence of a far-out device seems a bit jarring. Worse, that device is pivotal to one of the final twists in the movie.
Still, I did enjoy the movie despite all that. I guess I would recommend it to others, just be prepared for the rather jarring suspension of disbelief required for the final 15 minutes or so of the movie.