Better Late Than Never On "The Prestige"
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I am still trying to find a time that works for my wife and I to go see “The Odyssey”. We have two kids, one wants to see it, the other has zero interest. We also don’t necessarily have a babysitter, so we rely on grandparents. The problem there, they want to see it too. So, in lieu of going to see “The Odyssey”, we still plan on it, we decided to go back and watch the Christopher Nolan movies we have yet to see.
This week we watched “The Prestige”. This one has been on my list for a long while now. My wife knew of it, but she has never really brought up rather she wanted to see it or not. I know that RD really likes this movie. He’s told me this before. So, we had our date night on Friday, it was my pick and I chose “The Prestige”.
Right off the bat, this movie rules. I was in from moment one. I was telling my wife after watching that I never thought I’d care about magicians as much as I did while watching this movie. I thought the story, the way it unfolded and the twist were all pretty damn perfect. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, spoiler alert for a 20 year old movie, do excellent work playing dual roles. Jackman gets to be serious and funny in this movie. As The Great Danton, he is as much a workhorse as there is in the magic industry. He’s an obsessive who wants nothing more than to be the best. But as Root, he gets to play a drunken buffoon who used to be a viable actor. He was great. Christian Bale plays twin brothers, but we don’t find that out until the end. He gets to be himself, but two versions. And the way this all unfolds at the end is so gratifying. I would have gone nuts if I didn’t know what was coming. Bale pulls off the twin brothers wonderfully. He’s such a good actor. Michael Caine plays an advisor of sorts to both of the magicians. I can see why Nolan puts Caine in a bunch of his movies. He’s so reliable and so good at his job. He was wonderful, as per usual, in this movie. David Bowie plays Tesla, and Andy Serkis plays his assistant. Bowie is great, and kind of perfectly cast. He got to play a weirdo, which is fitting. I always forget than Serkis can play real people, but when he does he usually puts out some solid work. Rebecca Hall plays one of Bale’s twin brothers wife, and she does a bang up job. She gets to do a lot of dramatic stuff and she really nails it. I forgot how good of an actor she can be. Piper Perabo is barely in the movie, as Danton’s wife, not she’s memorable. She gives him his magician name and dies a tragic death that kind of sets the whole movie in motion. Scarlett Johansson gets the bulk of screen time as the assistant and love interest of both magicians. Johansson is a real talent and it was so easy to see she was going to be a big time star, even back then. She rules. And for Nolan, to adapt this work to the screen, he is a wizard. Again, this movie made me care about magicians. I found myself rooting for each at different moments. I loved the “montage” type stuff he put in the movie. He knows how to make a damn watchable movie. And to give one of the twin brothers the final line of, “abracadabra” was genius.
I adored this movie. I wish I’d seen it sooner without knowing the main twist. I highly recommend checking it out if you’ve never seen it, or going back and rewatching if you haven’t seen it in awhile. “The Prestige” rules. I’m stoked I can mark this one as seen on my list now.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.
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