The Prestige
Last weekend Laura & I caught "The Prestige" on Video-on-Demand. It’s the story of 2 fledgling magicians, Robert Angier (played by Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (played by Christian Bale), locked in a fierce rivalry over an illusion named "The Transported Man". Borden is responsible for the accidental death of Angier’s wife in a water-tank escape gone wrong, and the two constantly attempt to sabotage and one-up each other on stage. The movie draws it’s name from the 3rd part of every illusion, "The Prestige" where the vanished object returns with a great flourish.
The movie starts off very confusingly. The entire movie is a flashback, with the opening scene being the death of Angier’s character described during the trial of Borden for murder. The entire movie is Borden decrypting and reading Angier’s journal, which is convoluted further as Angier’s journal is about him decrypting and readin Borden’s journal. Luckily, about 20 minutes in you get used to it and it all starts to flow alot easier.
As the story develops you find out why the two men hate each other so, and the incredible lengths they’ve undergone to not only destroy each other but to create fascinating new tricks. They also unveil alot of magic’s secrets, showing how various tricks are performed and how they’re created. Eventually the story takes a fascinating turn as Angier recruits Nikola Tesla recreate the pivotal trick. From here the movie takes a surprising turn toward a Science Fiction end as Tesla unveils his Alternating Current work.
It was a fantastic movie, with several twists and turns and not one, but two great twists at the end. Even Laura loved it, although I had to fill her in on who Tesla was (Sad to see such a pivotal scientific figure reduced to Science Fantasy). Aside from the klunky start, it’s a fantastic film I highly recommend. 4 of 5 stars 
[tag:movie][tag:theprestige]
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