The Prestige

In spite of some interesting concepts and performances (Bowie perfectly cast as the enigmatic Tesla is a highlight) The Prestige bugs me a good deal. And not simply due to the presence of Hugh Jackman, though I do quite like the idea of him playing someone who is all flash and little craft.

It's a really solid idea, to treat the film itself as a magic trick. Michel Gondry talks about that sort of thing a lot in interviews, the misdirection involved in film. But I just don't believe it was a trick well performed. Neither twist was hard to spot (though one was supposed to be disguising the other, so I suppose it was supposed to be seen), but more importantly the big reveal(s), the prestige of the film itself wasn't a prestige at all. Like any good magic trick, it should have left you guessing as to how it was done, not explained everything it could in an attempt to neatly wrap it.

Now crucially, I have no idea how you'd go about doing that, and indeed, it would probably be commercial suicide to not explain your film in the third act, but for me it would have changed it from an interesting play on audience attention into something rare and ingenious.

A small niggle I suppose, but one I find hard to forgive.