The Prestige (2006) - Movie review

By
Zora Flatley
9

10

0
9

10

The Prestige (2006)

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, “The Prestige” tells the tale of two rivals, up and coming magicians, and their journey to become the most prestigious magician known.

Nolan brings on some cast members that the audience sees in his other movies including Christian Bale and Michael Cane as well as other members such as Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie, Andy Serkis, Rebecca Hall, and Piper Perabo, along with other essential cast members.

The movie is not based on a true story yet brings in people who existed in real life such as Nikola Tesla, portrayed by Bowie.

The storyline follows two magicians, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), as they start their journey of performative magic. Set in 1800s England, similar to the book of the same name written by Christopher Priest, the two start off working under John Cutter, yet go their separate ways especially after Angier’s wife is killed.

https://revyou.com/uploads/thumbnail-960/1599562602023The_Prestige-2.webp The Prestige (2006) - Movie review

Alfred Borden however performs a trick one night that shocked Angier and left him in awe as to how it could possibly be performed. With that he goes through the trouble of trying to figure it out and to try to create a teleportation machine with Nikola Tesla.

As usual, Nolan carefully chooses a cast that is more than able to perform tremendously and realistically. Although some aspects from the book were not portrayed, Nolan takes the essential parts of it and creates absolute magic with it.

Although it sometimes seems as though Christian Bale has a blank expression on his face and portrays less emotion than his rival in the movie Hugh Jackman, the two were able to balance each other out and still have chemistry even as rivals.

Although it is based on a book, it would not be a Christopher Nolan movie without a major plot twist at the end that leaves the audience speechless. Overall the music was not really up to par with the rest of the movie, but still gave the effect it needed depending on the scene.

The movie overall takes a rating of 9/10.