PRESTIGE: MOVIE REVIEW

"...this movie... mirrors uncontrolled male genius gone amok"

Watching PRESTIGE it is like playing chess with an imaginary board in your head; the story line weaves its way through a series of overlapping events and invites you to figure out what's actually going on in the lives of the characters. The movie not only entertains it also makes you participate in the gradual unfolding of the plot. Prestige reminds me of that great Michael Caine/Lawrence Olivier classic, Sleuth. Coincidentally Caine is also in this movie. Hugh Jackman, Wolverine/X-Men and Christian Bale, Batman sneak in and out of the their plot with some impressive performances. And Michael Caine's deceptive simplicity never fails to deliver the goods. He once told Larry King that acting is like "being in a natural conversation". Very true. Scarlet Johannson and Piper Perabo (a stage name?) don't just provide the romantic interest; they provide a foil to the motif of the movie: obsession and its underlying sub themes of illusion, deception and revenge. Nope...this movie is not about male bonding; it mirrors uncontrolled & competitive male genius gone amok. This is a good movie; its worth the money!

There is a particular masculine tendency to diabolically mock, compete and destroy. Jackman's Angier and Bales Borden are men trapped in such a pathology. They are not easy to evangelise: too clever and hardened for their own good. Only divine regenerative power can break through. And when that happens, men like Angier and Borden sing their own Psalms of healing and redemption.

Children will sleep through the movie. No nudity or foul language in the movie.