3 of 3

3. Cutter says no one cares about the man who goes into the box, only the man who comes out. Does the movie offer any evidence that supports this claim? Does it offer any evidence contrary to it
4. Cutter points out how dangerous tricks (water escapes, bullet catches) attract an audience hoping to see an accident. What other forms of entertainment pose a high level of risk to the performer? Can this make such entertainment morally problematic? Can you think of any examples?

The Prestige is rated PG-13 for violence and some disturbing imagery. The violence is sometimes deadly and includes gunplay, a hanging and a suicide, as well as repeated images of drowning. There are also implied affairs and some brief sensuality.

Photos © Copyright Touchstone & Warner Bros

© Steven D. Greydanus 2006, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

Christian Bale. Michael Caine. Director Christopher Nolan. Sounds like the next Batman movie, right?

While that fabulous team is indeed preparing to bring back Batman in 2007's The Dark Knight, starring Heath Ledger as The Joker, you don't have to wait to see them together again on the big screen.

Nolan's The Prestige pits two magicians—played by Bale and Hugh Jackman—against one another in a battle for superiority and, of course, the heart of a girl. The supporting cast, which includes not only Caine but also David Bowie, Scarlett Johansson, and Andy Serkis, is winning high praise. But this late-Victorian thriller is challenging audiences and critics to keep up with the narrative's twists and turns even as it dazzles them with surprises and spectacular special effects.

Frederica Matthewes-Green (Frederica.com, originally in The National Review) says, "[A] good magic trick is seductive, but a half hour into this film I *still* felt like I was watching a jumpy, agitated trailer. As we were marched smartly through the plot points, it seemed that the story was not so much developing as echoing, like a child doggedly repeating piano scales. These patterns may have created a pleasing symmetry in the novel by Christopher Priest … but on the screen it was just tiring." She concludes, though, that the film does at last build to "something daring and astonishing."

Christopher Lyon (Plugged In) writes, "[A]s a puzzle, the film succeeds wildly. As a story, however, the sense that you can never quite trust the motivations of these often-unsympathetic characters kept me from fully engaging emotionally in what happens to them."

Harry Forbes (Catholic News Service) notes that The Prestige is not the second film about magicians this year … it's the third. He reminds us not only of The Illusionist, but also of Woody Allen's Scoop, and says, "Odious comparison or not, the film … is far less engaging than either of the others, and proves a frustratingly convoluted tale. … In a word, what's missing from The Prestige is magic."

But Christa Banister (Crosswalk) disagrees, calling it "a deliciously deceptive tale of revenge that keeps you mesmerized for more than two hours. … In addition to the ending that's as surprising as The Sixth Sense was for most people the first time around, there's a valuable lesson here about the devastating effects of jealousy, revenge and the inability to forgive—which makes The Prestige all the more rewarding as Friday night entertainment."

Most mainstream critics are dazzled and thrilled.

from Film Forum, 11/09/06
Denny Wayman and Hal Conklin (Cinema in Focus) write, "The film causes the viewer to ask several existential questions: What drives each of us to succeed? Is it a desire to be the best that we can be, or is it a desire for immortality? Is it personal wealth? What happens when our talent and gifts in life are used to put others down in order for us to succeed? When our motives are less than pure, our desired objective is always sabotaged by our own personal actions and in the end when are pitied rather than given acclaim."

first page |  3 of 3