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The Prestige

In a lot of ways, for a director, a movie thriller is like a magic trick. You’ve got all the main parts of the illusion you introduce and a little to a lot of presentation slathered on it. And if you’re good enough, you’ll have everyone in the audience from the inbred, shitkicking okie to the old guy in the horrific sweater his wife bought him saying, “shucks maw, how’d he do that!?” and no one figures it out.

Which brings us to The Prestige, director Christopher Nolan’s break between Batman films, about two Victorian-era magicians in a heated vendetta against each other. They will stop at nothing, including sleeping with Scarlett Johansson, to top/topple each other. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale star as the illusionists in the blood feud and Michael Caine plays… well, the Alfred the Butler to the Jackman camp.

I know the plot sounds really fruity considering what modern-day illusionists such as David Blaine, David Copperfield and that metal-looking guy on cable do, but The Prestige is actually interesting as it mixes the right amounts of mystery and atmosphere to make you almost forget that Scarlett Johansson is in it. The only problem is that the trick, or twist ending, was kind of easy to figure out. So the time between that happening and the big reveal seemed kind of masturbatory in a way that was almost boastful. You know, kind of like when you figured out that the old sawing a lady in half trick was actually two women in separate boxes. When you looked closer you realized that no one is that tall, you felt cheated, waited for the end of the show and kind of wanted your money back.

You don’t have to worry about that with The Prestige. The acting is mostly great (remember that Scarlett Johansson is in it) and it looks incredible. What’s even better is that it takes the time to explain things even though magic is all about misdirection and not giving away its secrets. Even if you don’t like the movie so much, you’ll at least have the answer to that age-old question—if Batman and Wolverine were to get in a fight, who would win? I’m not going to say who, but he gets his ass kicked…! 

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