reviewed by John Murphy
The Prestige is a smart and stylish mind game. Directed by Christopher Nolan, best known for the ingenious narrative gambit of Memento (the story’s told backwards) and for the psychological complexity he brought to the Batman franchise with the Bale-starring Batman Begins, the Prestige is an enjoyable brain-bender/puzzle movie – smarter than your average popcorn flick, but just as diverting.
Though less penetrating and thoughtful than Nolan’s previous work, the Prestige is a triumph of surface design and special effects – a sleek bit of cinematic sleight-of-hand that is entertaining enough during its running time even as it fades from memory post-viewing. The story follows two rival magicians in late-Victorian England as they attempt to out-do each other and create the “greatest magic trick ever seen.” This simple set-up gives rise to a series of head-scratching twists and turns, the plot repeatedly doubling back and somersaulting and new revelations throwing light on previous events.
Magic tricks are all about misdirection, and Nolan (on his way to becoming a consummate showman) loads the screen with delectable distractions: lavish period-detail, atmospheric lighting, menacing shadows, fog-bound streets, secret science experiments, lovely assistants (one played by Esquire’s “Sexiest Woman Alive,” Scarlett Johansson), and a pair of consummate performers: the extroverted, stage-trained Hugh Jackman and the introverted, white-hot intense Christian Bale. They contrast nicely, though Jackman’s more conventional screen presence puts him at a disadvantage when sharing the scene with Bale, or the wily veteran, Michael Caine, or David Bowie.
David Bowie?! In my book, any movie that features the Thin White Duke is automatically worth seeing. In a casting coup, Bowie plays mysterious mastermind, Nikola Tesla (a real-life inventor and Thomas Edison rival), portrayed here as a bored-looking aristocrat with an unrecognizable accent and proto-supernatural power. Bowie’s elfin face effortlessly telegraphs sophisticated decadence.
As fun as the Prestige is, I’m most excited for Nolan’s upcoming project. And no, I don’t mean the Batman sequel (though that should be cool too). Christopher Nolan has been tapped to direct a movie adaptation of the cult-classic TV series, The Prisoner. The brain-child of crazybrilliant star, Patrck McGoohan, The Prisoner aired for seventeen episodes in the late 1960s. Ostensibly about an English spy who, after resigning for reasons unknown, is kidnapped and sent to a creepily idyllic island called “The Village” – The Prisoner had a lot on its mind for a “spy thriller.” Its episodes have proven strangely prescient. Cell phones, credit cards, the internet, Big Brother government…the Prisoner predicted it all, wrapping its social criticism up in a thrilling storyline, each installment another battle of wills between the ultimate individual (Number Six, whose famous rallying cry was “I am not a number, I am a free man!) and the minions of the Village, intent on “breaking” the indomitable No. 6.
Rumors of potential Number Sixes have included Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Isn’t it obvious who No. 6 should be? The man Nolan will by then have worked with three times in a row: Christian Bale. Tall, gaunt, intense, fiercely intelligent, athletic, scary, charismatic, dangerous…sounds like No. 6 to me, and all qualities Bale possesses. I can’t think of another actor working right now who so perfectly combines the requisite elements for playing as iconic a character as Number Six.