Delayed Reaction: The Prestige

The Pitch: Magicians are petty assholes.

Currently, I have three types  of film reactions. There's the Movie Reaction for any new film I see in a theater. I have the Delayed Reaction, for any film I'm seeing for the first time by any other means. Finally, I introduced My Favorite Movies a few months ago (I've only done one for Stranger Than Fiction, but I promise more will come eventually). There's this large group of movies that I've seen before but barely remember that I'm trying to figure out what to do with. So far, I just call them Delayed Reactions and own up to having seen the film before in the body of the reaction. I wonder if I should come up with a new label, like Delayed Revisit. It might explain my perspective more efficiently. Then again, I doubt too many people are tracking my naming conventions that closely.

I mention this because I've seen The Prestige before, and it couldn't've been that long ago. Certainly in the last decade, because I didn't see it in theaters. The funny thing is, despite liking it when I first saw it, I remembered almost nothing about it. Even as I watched it again, very few parts were familiar. Perhaps I blocked it all out because the scene with caged bird trick that Christian Bale ruins which maims an audience member's hands still makes me queasy. It's hard to say.

A few posts ago, I asked if anyone had a better decade than Francis Ford Coppola in the 70s (Godfather I & II, The Conversation, ApocalypseNow). I suggested Spielbergs from Jaws through Temple of Doom, which also included Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T.: Extra-Terrestrial. Nolan should be in the discussion as well. After all, 2005-2014 includes the entire Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, The Prestige, and Interstellar. Not all of these are all-time classics (so Coppola still probably wins out), but that's a great run.

The Prestige is pretty terrific. The story is basically "What would Amadeus be like if Salieri actually stood a chance?". The film is nominally rooting for Hugh Jackman as the protagonist or POV character, but by the end, I'm genuinely not sure if there is a correct side to take between him and Bale. I won't argue with the assessment that Jackman and Bale's characters are thinly drawn, but it's partly excused because their obsession to be the best overpowers everything else. Piper Perabo, Scarlett Johansson, and Rebecca Hall all disappear for long stretches of the movie, which is a shame. I love casting David Bowie as Tesla and Michael Caine gets a lot of use.

I'm still deciding if I like the final act or not, when the film moves into outright science fiction. Before the Tesla device, everything is grounded and explained. The Tesla device abandons that and opts for magic (or the magic of unexplained science). I like it as a literal device to show the level of their dedication and obsession, but the way it fundamentally changes the film does bother me.

Regardless, the film looks great, the production design and costuming feels authentic, the performances are strong, and the direction is measured and controlled. Definitely better than The Illusionist.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend