Those who dare to enter into director Christopher Nolan's jumbled maze of back-stabbings and abracadabra will be sure to find themselves entertained. The Prestige, starring a fantastic cast composed of Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johanssen and David Bowie, clocks in at about two hours and delivers one heck of a story line, chock full of twists and turns. This is the appeal of the film, yet at the same time its largest flaw.
Two Victorian-era magicians, Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) go to war against each other when Borden accidentally drowns Angier's wife, a stagehand, by tying a different knot than she normally uses to escape a classic on-stage, dunk-tank scenario. Jackman is ruined by his wife's death, his misery compounded by Bale's successful love life. Jackman obsesses over getting revenge, and from that point on it's a series of strikes on part of both camps, resulting in bloodshed, destruction and death. Dragged into the fray is Jackman's assistant Cutter, played superbly by Michael Caine, a young stagehand, Scarlett Johanssen, who is torn between the two men, and a mad-scientist version of Nikola Tesla, played surprisingly well by David Bowie.
The movie definitely suffers from too little constraint. The plot easily could have been cut down to at most two hours' length, and Nolan's trademark time-cuts are used so much it takes away from the magic it held in earlier films like Memento and Batman Begins. Nolan will show one scene, jump to another scene that takes place four years later, jump to a different scene two years in the past, and then jump once more back to the time of the initial scene. This is how he navigates throughout the length of the film, only saving the film's narrative continuity through his ability to place these time-cuts in a cohesive manner.
Time and how it shifts within a story has always been one of Nolan's chief interests. In Memento it was the gimmick for the entire film, with the whole movie occurring backwards. In his films Insomnia and Batman Begins he uses well-executed flashbacks to build character motives and tension. What made his previous experimentations with time shifts better in the past, though, was his self-restraint. While in previous films he would deliver only quick snippets of flashback or time-cuts, in The Prestige he loads the movie up to the brim.
The other drawback to the film is the knot that is each character's development. Many of the characters' actions are understandable, but some pop up too close to the end of the film to really settle with the viewer, and thus appear unreasonable. In the end, not to give the movie away, it's easy to be confused as to who you should have been rooting for: Jackman's tormented yet slightly overboard Angier, or Bale's sly yet deceiving Borden. The truth is you'd be best suited not choosing sides and simply enjoy the spectacle of it all. Surely that's what Nolan intended by choosing such eccentric subject matter as turn-of-the-century magicians.
On all other accounts, the film is fantastic, especially for mainstream cinema not geared toward winning one of those little bald statues. The characters may have certain limitations due to the faults of the writer, but that doesn't mean the actors don't try their best making their world seem real. Some of the settings are quite extravagant and breathtaking, and really deserve some credit for adding to the enjoyment of the film. The effects are done really well, and thankfully don't rely on any cheesy CGI presence. Nolan employs a nice, standard dramatic sound track that seems to work very well with his films. The Prestige has more than enough to offer viewers, and will surely leave most spellbound.
