MovieBuff

Prestigious!

On the surface, this should have been an easy review to write. Break out the superlatives, praise Christopher Nolan’s faultless direction to the heavens, rave about how clever and intricately structured the film is, and applaud a cluster of great performances – Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine and David Bowie (a revelation!), take a bow.

Then there’s the period recreation, the hugely atmospheric cinematography, the attention to detail that coheres what could have been a sprawling epic – timelines and interrelationships overlap – into intimate drama. There’s a bravura twist in the tail. Well, not so much a twist as a whole switchback of twists. The last half hour will leave you reeling. MovieBuff’s advice: go straight for a drink afterwards, you’ll be debating the movie over several pints.

On the surface, I should be able to continue in like fashion for a few more paragraphs, repeatedly exhorting everyone who reads this review to down tools – immediately – and go see The Prestige. The difficulty comes in offering a synopsis, or talking about the film’s construction and its themes of duality … I owe it to everyone who decides to see The Prestige – and I urge you again: go; it may well prove to be the film of the year – not to say too much.

The main characters are illusionists. The central theme is what it costs to achieve success, how much you have to sacrifice … And now I have to stop. The very fabric of the film is an exercise in illusionism itself, a clever, crafty, mind-boggling cinematic sleight of hand. Having said that, it’s not just a visual parlour trick, the way Shyamalan’s The Village was, only good for one viewing. The Prestige will reward multiple viewings, for its visual poetry as well as its intellectual conceits. And if the suspension of disbelief that the big revelation calls for leaves you feeling Nolan has gone a twist too far, that’s because it’s meant to work on a metaphorical level, not necessarily a literal one. It’s about dualism … about sacrifice …

It’s an absolute bloody masterpiece.

2.12.06 02:09