The Pledge, The Turn and The Prestige
Written: Oct 24 '06
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: acting, story, script
Cons: Bit long, pacing is a bit dodgy.
The Bottom Line: This is a thought provoking film about magic, revenge, obsession and love.
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| Alena's Full Review: The Prestige |
After being disappointed by the Illusionist, which was a good movie but it was a love story with magic as a backdrop, I was a little hesitant about seeing The Prestige. I was looking for a mystical yet thoughtful film about magic and magicians, and The Prestige delivers. It is a movie about magic, obsession, sacrifice and love. It has very good acting, a good story line, and good dialogue. It is a little long, and I found myself squirming a bit near the end anxious for the climax. But other than that this movie is thoughtful and well put together. If you like a movie that you can discuss later or that gives you something to think about, then take yourself to this one.
Plot: The movie is set in turn of the century London. It involves two budding magicians, Rupert Angier (Hugh Jackman), and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). They are working together under the same mentor and with the same technical advisor (the technical advisor makes sure the work they way they are supposed to mechanically). They have a bit of healthy competition going on, but nothing too serious. They also seem to be friends. They both assist the mentor with the human escape act, which features Rupert's wife, Julia. Alfred ties her hand and Rupert's ties her feet. Her hands have to be tied in a specific type of knot or she cannot escape. Alfred is interested in trying a new type of knot but Alfred and Cutter, Michael Caine, (the technical advisor) disagree as they are worried for Julia's safety, as well they should be for one night Julia does not escape, but instead drowns. This devastates Rupert. And so the real competition begins, as the two magicians battle to best one another in a lifetime of revenge and magic acts. They each try to get revenge on one another by ruining each other's magic tricks and they both strive to find the perfect and most spectacular magic trick to perform. At every turn in the story it finds each of the men falling further and further into obsession sacrificing more and more of their lives to the causes of magic, illusion, and of deadly revenge. I won't give any more away because it will ruin the movie.
I found the story to be very solid. I did not suspect the ending. It did drag a bit in the middle and towards the end I was anxious for the ending to arrive. This was more a matter of pacing then of the storyline being boring. The dialogue was good, seemed fairly natural and unforced. The special effects were average, but not too many were needed to show the magic tricks that these boys performed.
The acting was well done. Hugh Jackman is Rupert Angier. He begins as a loving man full of laughter and throughout the movie falls to despair, anger, revenge and obsession. Jackman does well through all the transitions. He has a very expressionable face and you can see his despair and obsession carved into his features. Christian Bale is great as the secret keeping mysterious Alfred Borden--did he kill Julia with the wrong knot?--and what other secrets is he hiding. Michael Caine is part narrator of this story as well as an instrumental character. He tries to advise the boys, tries to keep bad things from happening to the magicians--he just couldn't save Julia. Tries to keep Rupert from falling prey to obsession. He is like a caring father to Rupert. And Cutter is the one that explains my title. "Every great magic trick consists of three acts. The first act is called "The Pledge"; The magician shows you something ordinary, but of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn"; The magician makes his ordinary some thing do something extraordinary. Now if you're looking for the secret... you won't find it, that's why there's a third act called, "The Prestige"; this is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you've never seen before."
Piper Perabo is Julia. She is pretty, sweet, and loves Rupert and that is all we really know about Julia and all we probably need to know. Rebecca Hall is Sarah who is Alfred's wife. She puts up with the lies and secrets as much as she is able. She is a source of conflict for Alfred as she is a strong character with an opinion. Scarlett Johansson is Olivia. She starts out, as Rupert's assistant until he sends her to spy on Alfred. She falls in love with Alfred and becomes his mistress. She has a few surprises up her sleeve, as she is also a strong character with a mind and will of her own. David Bowie is Nikola Tesla. Telsa is an actual scientist who worked with electricity the same time as Edison. He shows up as an example of what obsession can do to a life. And he helps out one of the magicians (but I can’t tell you any more than that). All the acting was very good. I bought into all of their characters.
This movie will please both your eyes and your brain. It would give you something to think about, talk about, and ponder. The only issue I had with it was some pacing issues, but those weren't that bad. I would definitely recommend seeing this one in the movie theater. It was better than the Illusionist, more a movie of substance, which is what I was looking for.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Serious Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Pacing
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Epinions.com ID:
Alena
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 - Top 1000 |
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Location: San Fernando Valley, CA
Reviews written: 465
Trusted by: 48 members
About Me:
Finally got a real job. Start teaching full time on Sept 1st!
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