{"id":799,"date":"2011-02-22T02:15:23","date_gmt":"2011-02-22T02:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/?p=799"},"modified":"2014-06-24T18:19:23","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T17:19:23","slug":"the-prestige","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/?p=799","title":{"rendered":"THE PRESTIGE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One of the major themes running through Christopher Nolan\u2019s adaptation of The Prestige<\/em> is that many things in life (magic tricks, rivalry, love) retain their appeal only so long as there remains mystery about their inner workings. Knowing the secret of a trick renders it mundane.<\/h3>\n

I feel rather the same way about this film \u2013 although perhaps mundane is too harsh a word. Being familiar with Christopher Priest\u2019s original novel, I sat through the film knowing what was going to happen when the magician pulled back the curtain and revealed \u201cthe prestige\u201d and, as a result, I came out of the cinema rather less satisfied with my evening\u2019s entertainment than my companions. Which is a shame because Nolan\u2019s film is as sumptuous-looking and well-performed a piece of movie-making as I\u2019ve watched this year.<\/p>\n

Early in The Prestige<\/em>, Cutter (Caine) narrates an explanation of the three stages of a great magic trick. In the pledge<\/em> an audience is shown something ordinary, the turn<\/em> has that ordinary object does something extraordinary and, finally, the prestige <\/em>twists and shows the audience something they\u2019ve never seen before. The audience, the narrator tells us, might look for the secret, but they never find it because they actually want to be fooled. The audience buy into the magic and become the magician\u2019s accomplice.<\/p>\n

This film follows a rather similar structure \u2013 the opening relationship between Borden (Bale) and Angier (Jackman) appears no more than a straightforward rivalry between young men in the same trade. However that rivalry quickly becomes obsessive, with both men injuring the other physically and emotionally in their attempts to come out on top. And the ending reveals that, in their obsession, both men have endured almost impossible sacrifice to achieve their goals.<\/p>\n

But if an audience\u2019s willing complicity is the sign of a great magic trick, then The Prestige<\/em>, despite its many admirable qualities, falls someway short of greatness. Never, while watching it, did I find myself able to escape into the film \u2013 I was constantly on the outside, analysing Nolan\u2019s technique, trying to work out how he made his tricks work. My problem, since watching the film, has been to work out why.<\/p>\n

The Prestige\u2019s<\/em> faults are far from obvious. Both Bale and Jackman are excellent in the lead roles \u2013 Jackman is the more immediately likeable but the pair work well together with Bale\u2019s working class cockney sparking brightly off Jackman\u2019s smoother American character. Caine\u2019s Cutter is the wise old head who grounds the film\u2019s wilder moments. The women\u2019s roles are slight but Olivia (Johansson \u2013 who has never looked more stunning in movie) and Sarah (Hall) do provide The Prestige<\/em> with a sense of the emotional costs that obsession demands. David Bowie\u2019s cameo as Tesla might have unbalanced another film \u2013 it is a weird and clipped performance \u2013 but it works rather well here. The only disappointment is that his faithful laboratory assistant Alley (Serkis) didn\u2019t walk with a limp, speak with a lisp and say things like \u201cYerth Marthter!\u201d<\/p>\n

Nolan\u2019s direction is superbly assured and precise \u2013 intertwining subtle flowing camera movement with moments of great stillness \u2013 and Pfister\u2019s cinematography is lush without ever slipping into period clich\u00e9. The script by Nolan and his brother Jonathon, takes the essential elements of Priest\u2019s novel, tosses them into the air and reassembles them, chopping up continuity but never leaving the viewer baffled and delivering an intelligent, twisting and very modern thriller.<\/p>\n

The Prestige<\/em> has all this going for it, and yet still I didn\u2019t love it. Perhaps my reservations stem simply from the fact that I\u2019ve never enjoyed magic shows, I always want to know exactly how the trick works \u2013 I never consent to being fooled. Or perhaps, in the end, this film is just too much about the prestige<\/em> \u2013 the final revelation of the extraordinary \u2013 and that the characters\u2019 obsessions allow too little space for the consequences of their actions to be really explored. I suspect, however, that my reaction simply comes down to the fact that knowing the secret robs the trick of its power. As such I have some sympathy with Nolan\u2019s plea that the audience don\u2019t read the novel before seeing the film (though I\u2019m sure Christopher Priest would strongly disagree) as knowing how it\u2019s all done did rob The Prestige <\/em>of much of its dramatic power.<\/p>\n

None of this should stop you from seeing the film. The Prestige<\/em> belongs to a rare band of intelligent, technically brilliant and thematically faithful adaptations of top-rate science fiction novels \u2013 and as such it deserves to be cherished.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One of the major themes running through Christopher Nolan\u2019s adaptation of The Prestige<\/em> is that many things in life (magic tricks, rivalry, love) retain their appeal only so long as there remains mystery about their inner workings.<\/p>\n

Knowing the secret of a trick renders it mundane.<\/p>\n

I feel rather the same way about this film \u2013 although perhaps mundane is too harsh a word. Being familiar with Christopher Priest\u2019s original novel, I sat through the film knowing what was going to happen when the magician pulled back the curtain and revealed \u201cthe prestige\u201d and, as a result, I came out of the cinema rather less satisfied with my evening\u2019s entertainment than my companions. Which is a shame because Nolan\u2019s film is as sumptuous-looking and well-performed a piece of movie-making as I\u2019ve watched this year.<\/p>\n

Early in The Prestige<\/em>, Cutter (Caine) narrates an explanation of the three stages of a great magic trick. In the pledge<\/em> an audience is shown something ordinary, the turn<\/em> has that ordinary object does something extraordinary and, finally, the prestige <\/em>twists and shows the audience something they\u2019ve never seen before. The audience, the narrator tells us, might look for the secret, but they never find it because they actually want to be fooled. The audience buy into the magic and become the magician\u2019s accomplice.<\/p>\n

This film follows a rather similar structure \u2013 the opening relationship between Borden (Bale) and Angier (Jackman) appears no more than a straightforward rivalry between young men in the same trade. However that rivalry quickly becomes obsessive, with both men injuring the other physically and emotionally in their attempts to come out on top. And the ending reveals that, in their obsession, both men have endured almost impossible sacrifice to achieve their goals.<\/p>\n

But if an audience\u2019s willing complicity is the sign of a great magic trick, then The Prestige<\/em>, despite its many admirable qualities, falls someway short of greatness. Never, while watching it, did I find myself able to escape into the film \u2013 I was constantly on the outside, analysing Nolan\u2019s technique, trying to work out how he made his tricks work. My problem, since watching the film, has been to work out why.<\/p>\n

The Prestige\u2019s<\/em> faults are far from obvious. Both Bale and Jackman are excellent in the lead roles \u2013 Jackman is the more immediately likeable but the pair work well together with Bale\u2019s working class cockney sparking brightly off Jackman\u2019s smoother American character. Caine\u2019s Cutter is the wise old head who grounds the film\u2019s wilder moments. The women\u2019s roles are slight but Olivia (Johansson \u2013 who has never looked more stunning in movie) and Sarah (Hall) do provide The Prestige<\/em> with a sense of the emotional costs that obsession demands. David Bowie\u2019s cameo as Tesla might have unbalanced another film \u2013 it is a weird and clipped performance \u2013 but it works rather well here. The only disappointment is that his faithful laboratory assistant Alley (Serkis) didn\u2019t walk with a limp, speak with a lisp and say things like \u201cYerth Marthter!\u201d<\/p>\n

Nolan\u2019s direction is superbly assured and precise \u2013 intertwining subtle flowing camera movement with moments of great stillness \u2013 and Pfister\u2019s cinematography is lush without ever slipping into period clich\u00e9. The script by Nolan and his brother Jonathon, takes the essential elements of Priest\u2019s novel, tosses them into the air and reassembles them, chopping up continuity but never leaving the viewer baffled and delivering an intelligent, twisting and very modern thriller.<\/p>\n

The Prestige<\/em> has all this going for it, and yet still I didn\u2019t love it. Perhaps my reservations stem simply from the fact that I\u2019ve never enjoyed magic shows, I always want to know exactly how the trick works \u2013 I never consent to being fooled. Or perhaps, in the end, this film is just too much about the prestige<\/em> \u2013 the final revelation of the extraordinary \u2013 and that the characters\u2019<\/p>\n

One of the major themes running through Christopher Nolan\u2019s adaptation of The Prestige<\/em> is that many things in life (magic tricks, rivalry, love) retain their appeal only so long as there remains mystery about their inner workings.<\/p>\n

Knowing the secret of a trick renders it mundane.<\/p>\n

I feel rather the same way about this film \u2013 although perhaps mundane is too harsh a word. Being familiar with Christopher Priest\u2019s original novel, I sat through the film knowing what was going to happen when the magician pulled back the curtain and revealed \u201cthe prestige\u201d and, as a result, I came out of the cinema rather less satisfied with my evening\u2019s entertainment than my companions. Which is a shame because Nolan\u2019s film is as sumptuous-looking and well-performed a piece of movie-making as I\u2019ve watched this year.<\/p>\n

Early in The Prestige<\/em>, Cutter (Caine) narrates an explanation of the three stages of a great magic trick. In the pledge<\/em> an audience is shown something ordinary, the turn<\/em> has that ordinary object does something extraordinary and, finally, the prestige <\/em>twists and shows the audience something they\u2019ve never seen before. The audience, the narrator tells us, might look for the secret, but they never find it because they actually want to be fooled. The audience buy into the magic and become the magician\u2019s accomplice.<\/p>\n

This film follows a rather similar structure \u2013 the opening relationship between Borden (Bale) and Angier (Jackman) appears no more than a straightforward rivalry between young men in the same trade. However that rivalry quickly becomes obsessive, with both men injuring the other physically and emotionally in their attempts to come out on top. And the ending reveals that, in their obsession, both men have endured almost impossible sacrifice to achieve their goals.<\/p>\n

But if an audience\u2019s willing complicity is the sign of a great magic trick, then The Prestige<\/em>, despite its many admirable qualities, falls someway short of greatness. Never, while watching it, did I find myself able to escape into the film \u2013 I was constantly on the outside, analysing Nolan\u2019s technique, trying to work out how he made his tricks work. My problem, since watching the film, has been to work out why.<\/p>\n

The Prestige\u2019s<\/em> faults are far from obvious. Both Bale and Jackman are excellent in the lead roles \u2013 Jackman is the more immediately likeable but the pair work well together with Bale\u2019s working class cockney sparking brightly off Jackman\u2019s smoother American character. Caine\u2019s Cutter is the wise old head who grounds the film\u2019s wilder moments. The women\u2019s roles are slight but Olivia (Johansson \u2013 who has never looked more stunning in movie) and Sarah (Hall) do provide The Prestige<\/em> with a sense of the emotional costs that obsession demands. David Bowie\u2019s cameo as Tesla might have unbalanced another film \u2013 it is a weird and clipped performance \u2013 but it works rather well here. The only disappointment is that his faithful laboratory assistant Alley (Serkis) didn\u2019t walk with a limp, speak with a lisp and say things like \u201cYerth Marthter!\u201d<\/p>\n

Nolan\u2019s direction is superbly assured and precise \u2013 intertwining subtle flowing camera movement with moments of great stillness \u2013 and Pfister\u2019s cinematography is lush without ever slipping into period clich\u00e9. The script by Nolan and his brother Jonathon, takes the essential elements of Priest\u2019s novel, tosses them into the air and reassembles them, chopping up continuity but never leaving the viewer baffled and delivering an intelligent, twisting and very modern thriller.<\/p>\n

The Prestige<\/em> has all this going for it, and yet still I didn\u2019t love it. Perhaps my reservations stem simply from the fact that I\u2019ve never enjoyed magic shows, I always want to know exactly how the trick works \u2013 I never consent to being fooled. Or perhaps, in the end, this film is just too much about the prestige<\/em> \u2013 the final revelation of the extraordinary \u2013 and that the characters\u2019 obsessions allow too little space for the consequences of their actions to be really explored. I suspect, however, that my reaction simply comes down to the fact that knowing the secret robs the trick of its power. As such I have some sympathy with Nolan\u2019s plea that the audience don\u2019t read the novel before seeing the film (though I\u2019m sure Christopher Priest would strongly disagree) as knowing how it\u2019s all done did rob The Prestige <\/em>of much of its dramatic power.<\/p>\n

None of this should stop you from seeing the film. The Prestige<\/em> belongs to a rare band of intelligent, technically brilliant and thematically faithful adaptations of top-rate science fiction novels \u2013 and as such it deserves to be cherished.<\/p>\n

obsessions allow too little space for the consequences of their actions to be really explored. I suspect, however, that my reaction simply comes down to the fact that knowing the secret robs the trick of its power. As such I have some sympathy with Nolan\u2019s plea that the audience don\u2019t read the novel before seeing the film (though I\u2019m sure Christopher Priest would strongly disagree) as knowing how it\u2019s all done did rob The Prestige <\/em>of much of its dramatic power.<\/p>\n

None of this should stop you from seeing the film. The Prestige<\/em> belongs to a rare band of intelligent, technically brilliant and thematically faithful adaptations of top-rate science fiction novels \u2013 and as such it deserves to be cherished.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the major themes running through Christopher Nolan\u2019s adaptation of The Prestige is that many things in life (magic tricks, rivalry, love) retain their appeal only so long as there remains mystery about their inner workings. Knowing the secret of a trick renders it mundane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[11,8,10],"tags":[51,76,43,46],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/prestige.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27AP7-cT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=799"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1703,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions\/1703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}