The Prestige

"Every great magic trick consists of three acts...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." The Prestige, Christopher Nolan's latest anti-chronological flick tests the boundaries of magical realism. Nolan's CV includes several enigmatic films such as Memento and the new Batman series, with Batman Begins finished and The Dark Knight in pre-production. He and his brother Jonathon Nolan make an excellent writing team, penning all the aforementioned films with the exception of Batman Begins. The Nolan brothers' specialty is creating complicated, unique, clever plots that always play with time and order in interesting ways. The Prestige focuses on two magicians in turn-of-the-century London whose competitive friendship quickly becomes a ruthless rivalry to come up with the most original trick. Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) each have intense personalities, Angier with his obsession to be better than Borden and the latter with the secret of his amazing trick. Jackman plays up this obsessive nature very well, clearly showing the evolution of a talented young magician into a crazed man who lets his obsession take over his life. Bale also does an fine job portraying the double life of the brooding, mysterious, confident other magician. Michael Caine is excellent as usual, even though he is basically repeating his role of Alfred from Batman Begins.
Editing in this film is key to keeping the audience understanding the events of the story even through flashbacks. The flashbacks themselves were not even presented in chronological order. What was so impressive about the way the story was told was that even while starting the film at the near end and continually looking back on what has already happened, the audience never manages to discover the secrets of the magicians until the filmmakers want the audience to. Even during these complicated flashbacks, I was able to keep straight what was happening and when it happened. The only weak link in this whole equation was Scarlett Johansson. While her character itself was not largely pivotal to the plot, her portrayal was not terribly interesting either. I try not to compare an actor's other roles when judging their performance in one particular film, but I am just having trouble really seeing the difference between Johansson's latest roles or even seeing her talent in any of these roles (ex. The Black Dahlia, Scoop, The Island, etc.). Other than that little hiccough, I would say another outstanding film from the Nolan brothers....I can't wait to see The Dark Knight!