Are You Watching Closely?

Why hasn't anybody told director Christopher Nolan that your not suppose to make your audience think...let alone make art films at a blockbuster level. But that, it seems, what he's intent on doing. Nolan has two type of narrative in his films; either a relatively straight forward, linear narrative (like The Dark Knight or Insomnia). Or there's the non-linear, fractured narrative. The latter is used, not to confuse, but to artfully communicate a particular idea in the story. So in Inception, Nolan uses five simultaneous events to communicate the concept of dreams within dreams. In Memento he tells the narrative in reverse using 10 minute scenes, to communicate the idea of short term memory loss. And with his period thriller, The Prestige, he unfolds the narrative in such a way as to resemble a magic trick.

As with Inception and Memento, The Prestige requires your FULL attention (indeed, the first line of the movie is, "Are you watching closely?") It follows two 19th Century magicians, Christian Bale (a brilliant magician who lacks theatricality) and Hugh Jackman (dependant on colleague Michael Caine for his tricks, but a talented performer) who fall out after a tragic event. Their contempt for each other is later overshadowed by their desire to perform the ultimate illusion, The Transported Man; both consumed by how the other performs their version of the trick.

Basically it's a tale of obsession as we see how their lifelong commitment to the world of magic takes it's tolls on their relationships and morality. As with all Nolan movies its compulsive viewing as Nolan gives us scenes throughout the two men's relationship, hopping backwards and forwards between years and continents, but in an order that gradually enlightens...gathering momentum until we're as desperate
for answers as the two obsessed leads.

On a production level the film is flawless, with cast and crew working in perfect harmony. But it's director Nolan that's the real star and it's a tribute to him that we don't work out the magic trick (or one of them, at least) until the very end. Original, classy, mentally stimulating and absorbing.