The Prestige may be the best movie I've seen all year. It's the most gripping film I've seen in longer than that. It's hard to top a movie with its pedigree: directed by Christopher Nolan, with Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale starring, Michael Caine and David Bowie (as Tesla, no less) in supporting roles. I love to go to movies, both to watch them, enjoy them, but also as a place to think if the movie is less than stellar. But I realized fairly quickly that I was completely absorbed. Which is fitting for a story of brutal obsession.
One of the best things about the movie is how Nolan doesn't softpedal the various timelines running throughout; other directors would use fades, wipes, different film stocks, to signal where in time, in the narrative, you as viewer are. You have to pay attention but also rely on your understanding of narrative to keep up. It's great.
The plot dovetails so adroitly at one point I chuckled aloud, which is, for me, kind of the highest compliment I pay a movie, when I'm ridiculously pleased by the skill on display.
I'm not quite sure what to make of the very last shot, though, the very last image. I'll have to see it again and I'll be happy to do so.
About Me
- Paul
- Paul Guest is the author of four volumes of poetry and a memoir. His debut, The Resurrection of the Body and the Ruin of the World, was awarded the 2002 New Issues Poetry Prize. His second collection, Notes for My Body Double, was awarded the 2006 Prairie Schooner Book Prize. His third collection, My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge, was published by Ecco Press/HarperCollins in 2008. His fourth collection, Because Everything Is Terrible, was published by Diode Editions. His poems have appeared in Harper's, The Paris Review, Poetry, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. His memoir, One More Theory About Happiness, was published by Ecco in May 2010 and selected for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program. The recipient of a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2007 Whiting Writers' Award, Guest lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
6 comments:
I'm definitely with you on "The Prestige" .. there's no other director working today who would have been able to handle such a difficult story with such style
Hope I'm not double-posting. (Problems logging in.)
I've been seeing previews to this movie and have been intrigued. But this morning, I saw a less than admirable review and was disappointed. Now, since reading the response of movie-goer/poet-boy extraordinaire, I'll be able to go with high expectations, as originally planned. :)
Gah! I'm reaching that point in a film's release (roughly ten days) at which I suffer dissonance over whether to see a film in its main release, in its discount theater appearance pre-DVD, or only on DVD. Dammit.
But I think Nolan has a fine sense of building a story (and making it fun at the same time), the Prestige looked wonderful in previews, I've only heard good word of mouth, and...and...
I really wish I was more proactive with these viewings.
-cK
Jordan and I LOVED it. I gasped aloud at the top hat part...My only qualm was also with the ending shot. I wanted to leave on a positive note. I'm be thinking about this one for days.
It's so great. It doesn't hurt that it's set in such a great historical era.
Just not sure what I'm supposed to take from that last shot. Still thinking about it.
That movie was a lot of fun. The person I went with complained about all the flashbacks, but I thought it was great--the whole movie felt like a magic trick.
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