Random Musings

I caught “The Prestige” recently.

It was a movie I’ve been quite eager to catch for some time, because it’s a story about magicians, and as you might know, I was (and to a large extent still am) a huge fan of the Art of Magic.

Friends have been saying many good things about this movie.

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I’ll have to say that this one of the most enjoyable movies I’ve ever watched at a cinema.

It was one of the very few movies where I found myself glancing constantly at my watch, hoping that the movie wouldn’t end so quickly.

It was so engaging I didn’t want it to end. 

Part of it could have been due to the fact that the main subject matter revolved around magicians. (Yup, I could have been biased.)

However, from an objective point of view, I really liked the many twist and turns the story had (similar to a magic trick), and I really like how they portrayed the characters in the late 19th century setting.

There was an authentic feel to the movie, which I liked very much.

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And I also liked how they portrayed the high-regard which magic was placed back in the olden days.  

You could really sense the tension and grandeur in the theatre when the magicians were performing their illusions.

Indeed, magic back then was really different from the way it is today. Back then, magicians were the “rock stars” – the most fascinating and electrifying performers in society.

And this movie really brought that out.

Nowadays, we think of magicians as cheesy entertainers doing tricks with cards or sponge balls in restaurants or birthday parties…but back then it was different.

Magicians (or illusionists) such as Harry Houdini were mysterious, mystical performers who could attempt (and usually succeed) at performing death-defying stunts such as the “bullet catch”, or the “underwater torture chamber”, or even, according to the movie, the “transported man”.

And back then, their methods were much cruder than they were today. The movie portrayed how they actually killed the doves each time they appeared to have made them “vanish”, only to reproduce another dove.

And many of their illusions/stunts were highly dangerous, as the rate of failure (which could mean death) was much higher than it is today, due to them using more primitive methods and apparatuses.

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I liked how they included Chung Ling Soo at one point in the movie. Magic lovers would have found that name familiar.

Apparently Ricky Jay made a cameo in the movie, but I was unable to pick him out.

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As one of my colleagues mentioned, the movie will leave you with many questions.

And it was true.

I left the theatre asking myself a lot of questions about the plot.

But I like such thought-provoking movies. At least it leaves you plenty to think about after watching it.

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One of my favourite parts in the movie is when Borden’s (Christian Bale’s) wife Sarah tells him that she can always tell whether he’s lying or telling the truth when he says he loves her.

Later in the movie, it was proven that she was highly accurate. 

That, to me, is real magic.

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“The Prestige” is a very intelligent movie which drops subtle clues along the way…which you probably might not be able to pick out until you start analyzing everything after the movie ends (which I find very fun).

It’s the kind of movie which you’d immediately want to start calling your friends (who’ve watched it already) to discuss about the finer points after watching it.

All in all, it was was of the best movies I’ve watched in a long time.

I love intelligent movies.

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My favourite line, i.e. the line which struck me most in the movie, was somewhere at the beginning, when Cutter (Michael Caine) says - “The secret impresses no one.”