Finally saw "The Prestige" last week . . .

[revdorothyl]

I finally saw the movie "The Prestige" last week (because I wanted to use up a free movie pass before I forgot about it and because it's got Hugh Jackman, after all, and I'd just caught the end of "Empire of the Sun" on AMC that morning and had been reminded of what a cute kid Christian Bale was), and although I wouldn't say it was badly done, I can't say that I enjoyed it. At all.

In fact, I felt badly in need of some sort of psychic shower, afterwards, to remove the mental "ickyness" left by the fact that none of the major characters in this film (the men, anyways) turned out to have anything remotely close to a full soul of their own, judging by the casual cruelties and general lack of empathy they displayed toward everyone else.

*mentally shudders*

Call me a "sissy", but . . . all I can say about the characters played by Jackman and Bale and even Michael Caine and David Bowie was, in the end, "Ewwww...!"

Comments

[revdorothyl.livejournal.com]

Your point is well taken. Perhaps I was just so disappointed in the choices they made at each step when they could've left bad enough alone and tried to make the rest of their lives worth something that I couldn't enjoy the film, in the end. As you say, Bale's character(s) could so easily have been happy if they hadn't insisted on trying to share one life and put the two women they loved through such hellish emotional ups and downs, all for the sake of what they considered success. Maybe I was most upset because I was really rooting for Jackman, but as soon as I realized (midway through the film, or earlier) that he must still be alive and was the rich nobleman offering to buy Bale's secrets, I found it harder and harder to sympathize with him. Somehow, knowing that his livelihood didn't depend on his stage career made it all the more sordid, that he should go so far for revenge and for the prestige of that final bow.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Jackman's character had the farthest fall of all of them. The crucial point for him, to me, was when he blurted out that he didn't care about his wife. It wasn't even the revenge of a heart broken man (which I could understand), but the desperation to win. To beat his opponent. the fact of the matter is, if you aren't in the mood for a tragedy, or go in expecting something else, such a movie will be a disappointment. There are some movies, books, etc. that are perfectly wonderful things but they hit me wrong, bring up bad memories or leave me feeling dirty (like this one did to you) that I just can't enjoy. Nothing wrong with that.