The Prestige

            By now, I'm fairly certain everyone knows who Christopher Nolan is.  In the past ten years he's established himself as one of the greatest directors of the decade and I have yet to see a single film by him that I didn't enjoy.  The film, however, I want to talk about today is one of his more obscure ones that seems to have been lost in the shuffle, especially in the wake of the Dark Knight.  It was the film released in 2006, in between his Batman movies, and in my opinion, is just as good as his others.  This is the Illusive One's Review of The Prestige.

            The film was based and the novel of the same name by Christopher Priest and stars Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis, and David Bowie.  It takes place during the late 19^th, early 20^th century and revolves around two rival magicians as they attempt to steal each other’s secrets and try to outdo each other as their illusions and rivalries turn dangerous and deadly.

            There are a lot of positive things to say about this movie.  It had a great plot, full of twist and various things that kept your head spinning they way Nolan's non Batman movies always do.  Great performances were given all around by both the protagonists and the supporting cast.  What really made this film, however, were Jackman's and Bale's performances.  Both played compelling but flawed characters and throughout the movie you really weren’t sure which you wanted to be the victor.

            The only negative thing I have to say about it is the way the film was put together.  Much of it had a character reading the dairy of another character while this character is reading the dairy of the first character, giving it a nonlinear narrative structure and this can make your head spin and can sometimes be difficult to keep up with.  The last has to do with the ending as it never fully explains the final twist of the movie.  Maybe that's for the better but it never fails to irritate me.

            All around, I would highly recommend this film to any movie lover.  It had a great plot, great acting, and great twists.  It's just as good as his other movies like Memento and Inception so don't miss out on it.

All Around

9/10