The Prestige (film)
| The Prestige | |
|---|---|
 US Promotional poster for The Prestige. | |
| Directed by | Christopher Nolan |
| Written by | Novel: Christopher Priest Screenplay: Jonathan Nolan Christopher Nolan |
| Starring | Hugh Jackman Christian Bale Michael Caine Scarlett Johansson David Bowie |
| Cinematography | Wally Pfister |
| Edited by | Lee Smith |
| Music by | David Julyan |
| Distributed by | - USA - Touchstone Pictures - non-USA - Warner Bros. |
Release dates | October 20, 2006 (USA) |
Running time | 130 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $40 million |
The Prestige is a 2006 film based on Christopher Priest's award winning 1995 novel of the same name. The film is directed by Christopher Nolan and reunites the director with Christian Bale and Michael Caine, both of whom Nolan worked with in Batman Begins. The Prestige also stars Hugh Jackman, David Bowie, Scarlett Johansson, Piper Perabo and Andy Serkis.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Hugh Jackman | Rupert Angier |
| Christian Bale | Alfred Borden |
| Michael Caine | Harry Cutter |
| Scarlett Johansson | Olivia Svenson |
| David Bowie | Nikola Tesla |
| Piper Perabo | Julia Fensell |
| Rebecca Hall | Sarah Borden |
| Andy Serkis | Mr. Alley |
Plot
Template:Spoilers The film begins with a voiceover from Harry Cutter, (Michael Caine) [1], where he describes the three parts of a magic trick:
- The Pledge, where a magician shows his audience something ordinary, when it probably isn't.
- The Turn, where the ordinary object does something extraordinary.
- The Prestige, where the astonishment takes place as the audience cannot unravel a magician's secrets.
Set in late 19th century London, the film tells of Rupert Angier (Hugh Jackman), a popular American magician, with his British mentor Cutter, and assistant Olivia (Scarlett Johansson), who is in a friendly rivalry with Cockney magician Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). However, it soon turns into a jealous rivalry, as Rupert tries to discover the secrets of Alfred's success. It soon emerges that he may have real magical powers... Template:Endspoiler
Production
Nolan got Priest's blessing with the adaptation. Filming started on January 9th, 2006, and finished on April 8, 2006. During filming, Nolan didn't build sets, but simply dressed locations and soundstages in Los Angeles (standing in for Victorian England) and Colorado. [1]
The film is currently being completed, and was on track for an October 27, 2006 release. Touchstone opted to move the release date up a week to October 20, 2006. [2]
Response
Critics
There has been praise [3] and criticism [4] for the twists and turns in the storytelling. Drew McWeeny has given it a glowing review and said that it will certainly demand repeat viewing. [5] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone concurred. Richard Roeper and guest critic A.O. Scott have also given the film two thumbs up. Killer Movie Reviews acclaimed the tension as "gut-wrenching" and also acclaimed Nolan for "maintaining a perfect sense of wonder throughout". They gave the film 4/5, the only down note being an obvious solution. [6] Todd Gilchrist of IGN praised both Bale and Jackman's performances, whilst praising Nolan for making "this complex story as easily understandable and effective as he made the outwardly straightforward comic book adaptation (Batman Begins) dense and sophisticated... any truly great performance is almost as much showmanship as it is actual talent, and Nolan possesses both in spades."[7]
On the other hand, Dennis Harvey of Variety critisised the film as gimmicky, though he felt the cast did well in underwritten roles. [8]. Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter felt that characters "are little more than sketches". Remove their obsessions, and the two magicians have little personality". [9] Nonetheless, the two reviewers praised David Bowie as Tesla, as well as the production values and cinematography. The AICN reviewer known as "Vincent Hanna" notes that "It is good and worth seeing... but somehow it feels like a mild dissapointment at the same time". [10] On a simpler note, Emanuel Levy has summed up both responses by saying: "Whether viewers perceive "The Prestige" as intricately complex or just unnecessarily complicated would depend to a large degree on their willingness to suspend disbelief for two hours." He gave the film a B grade. [11]
The film has a strong 77% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, compiled from 61 reviews.
Trivia
- Bale and Jackman played two very well known comic book heroes, Batman and Wolverine, respectively. Coincidentally, in Amalgam Comics, their characters merged into the character known as Dark Claw.
- The Prestige is one of three 2006 films to feature both the topic of magic and magicians as main characters. The other two are The Illusionist and Scoop, the second of which also stars Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson.
- In Latin America, the movie will be released under the name "The Big Trick".
See also
References
- ^ a b Carle, Chris (2006-09-20). "The Prestige Edit Bay Visit". IGN. Retrieved 2006-10-05.
- ^ "The Prestige Changes the Date". Canmag.com. 2006-07-23. Retrieved 2006-10-05.
- ^ Smith, Je (2006-09-27). "Are You Watching Closely?". Pop Syndicate. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
- ^ Perez, Jon (2006-10-04). "Early Look: The Presige". LatinoReview.com. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
- ^ McWeeny, Drew (2006-10-13). "Moriarty conjures up AICN's first review of The Prestige!". Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
- ^ "The Prestige". Killer Movie Reviews. 2006-10-15. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
- ^ Gilchrist, Todd (2006-10-15). "Elevating movie magic to new artistic heights". IGN. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
- ^ Harvey, Dennis (2006-10-13). "The Prestige". Variety. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
- ^ Honeycutt, Kirk. "The Prestige". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
- ^ "The Prestige baffles Vincent Hanna, but is that a good thing?". Ain't It Cool News. 2006-. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Levy, Emanuel (2006-10-15). "The Prestige". Emanuel Levy.com. Retrieved 2006-10-15.