Saturday, November 18, 2006

Faking the Pledge

"The Prestige" is the about the worst big-budget production, studio film I've ever seen. Considering "Heaven's Gate" and "Ishtar," what a remarkable achievement! A film about two magicians, illusionists really, the story opens with one of them causing the death by drowning of the wife of the other. It goes downhill from there.

Even before getting to that first elevating moment, the film lost me. In the prologue Michael Caine, a magician's engineer, explains the three stages of an illusion. A magician states the Pledge - what he is about to do - to make a bird disappear. It is followed by the Turn, the disappearance itself. The payoff is the Prestige, when the bird reappears unmolested. As Michael Caine demonstrates this, I wonder whether he needs the money and if there was any film too embarrassing for him to take on. I felt an immediate, visceral distaste for the film. I did not buy into its pledge.

This overly long film of vengeance ran amok stalled out before it began. The cast and acting were good. The cinematography and settings were beautifully rendered. I found myself thinking about how they created the sets and the lighting, anything to avoid paying attention to the story. Nothing relieved the nausea that settled upon me in the opening moment. It is ironic that a picture about illusions fails to evoke the suspension of disbelief. You can hear the gears clanking and see the wheels turning. I wouldn't call this Movie Magic.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Blues Rider,

Were you bummed that you spent a couple of hours sitting through this mess? Or were you satisfied that you were in a position to warn others off?

As a fellow blogger, with a very limited audience, do you think that your communiqués get out there and influence anyone, or are you writing as an exercise, essentially to "hear" yourself write?

I have been asking folks to go ahead and read my blog, if for no other reason then to get some feedback as to the quality and interest (or lack thereof) of the (my) writing.

If you have an opinion, I think you can just click on the link and opine away.

- cb

03 December, 2006  
Blogger Evan Sarzin said...

I write for my own entertainment and to work on my writing. These blog entries are mostly writing exercises. It would be great to have a readership but it undoubtedly would change me and Zircon. It's fine where it is.

03 December, 2006  

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