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The subject matter of Christopher Nolan's latest film didn't particularly thrill me, but I was still looking forward to it anyway as I am a big fan of Nolan's work. The Prestige is unmistakably a Nolan film (he's really got a quite distinctive signature) in that the narrative is fractured and out of order, but yet the film never seems too convoluted or hard to follow. It's a tricky method to get right but The Prestige certainly does it. The film focuses on the intense rivalry between two Victorian stage musicians, and is immediately captivating right from the start. My attention never wandered even slightly throughout the whole film, partly because I didn't want to miss any of the densely plotted narrative but also because I was just completely engrossed. The performances are all very good, but some do take a bit of getting used to - Christian Bale's accent, for example, is extremely broad and some might say distracting. The film looks great, putting all of its moderate budget on screen. The look is quite washed out and dark, but I thought it worked great and was definitely in keeping with the atmosphere of the story. I only really could find two negatives, and both concern the ending (no spoilers here, don't worry): part of it I had figured out well before the climax and the other part felt like a bit of a cop-out to me. You'll probably know what I mean once you've seen it - which you definitely should, since it's excellent.
The summary
The Prestige is extremely twisty and turny, requiring your full attention, but it's worth the effort. Perhaps not for casual cinemagoers who want a cheap no-brain thrill but for anyone else it's highly recommended.
