The Greatest Cinematic Experience of My Life

On a chilly December night I sat cooped up in a small hostel room, crammed with 3 other movie enthusiasts, watching a low definition print on a laptop with a smallish screen with my neck bent at a painful angle. Yet, I loved every minute of it! Given, I had nothing better to do at the time, I still wouldn’t have sat through those conditions for anything else, not even for a Pamela Anderson video.

I have done a movie review on the blog before, but this is not a review, this is just my description of something very special. However, for the sake of continuity (and as a disregard for brevity, :) ) I’ll give The Prestige a 5/5 . That’s right, a perfect score! For an appreciator of thrillers, The Prestige is a perfect flick.

Directed by Christopher Nolan, The Prestige is another magnificent feather in his exotic cap. Remember Nolan has also directed Memento, Batman Begins and Insomnia. Like all his other movies The Prestige takes the liberty of making the audiences think. Nolan has always been fond of non-linear and broken timelines (recall Memento’s parallel forward and backward moving sequences and Al Pacino’s distorted perception in Insomnia), but he uses it to particularly brilliant effect in The Prestige. The plot of The Prestige can’t easily be summed up in words, but I finally have some time to kill so I’ll give it a shot.

So here it goes, The Prestige is a story of the intense rivalry of two brilliant magicians Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) based in Victorian times. The beauty of the movie is that it has three intertwining timelines: the present, the retrospective and the retrospective within the retrospective! Despite the complicated structure, the flick flows effortlessly between Alfred Borden in a London Jail for allegedly murdering Robert Angier; Angier in Colorado Springs seeking the scientific assistance of Tesla to outdo his rival and his subsequent return to London; and the early period of Angier and Borden’s careers during which they were colleagues briefly. Angier is a master showman who captivates his audiences and Borden is the better magician who can’t quite present his tricks as well. When Borden performs the ultimate trick, “The Transported Man”, Angier becomes obsessed with figuring it out and outdoing it.

You will enjoy The Prestige even if you can’t keep up with the plot but if you figure out Nolan’s magic tricks you will have an experience like none other.

The casting of the movie is flawless, Jackman plays the elegant Angier perfectly and Bale too outdoes himself in his portrayal of the rougher Borden. The distinguished Michael Caine also churns out a refined performance. Scarlett Johansson parading in cute Victorian outfits provides plenty of eye candy but you will be too captivated by the story to notice the curvaceous leading lady wearing tight, cleavage revealing tops and fluffy skirts (Whoops! Looks like I did notice, :)).

If you have already seen The Prestige you know what I am talking about, if you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favor and watch it at the earliest opportunity. Though heed my warning, don’t watch it if you have work early next morning because you’ll spend a sleepless night trying to figure it out.