Nothing up my sleeve.... and PRESTO!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
I love magic tricks - the ones that my brother used to do at our big family BBQs used to entertain everyone, and used to leave me wondering how on earth he did it. I always wanted to be his assistant, but he knew that I wouldn't be able to keep the secrets of the tricks to myself so he always politely declined my kind offer :-) One of my favourites was when he would turn a $50 note into 2.... into a $2 note, that is (when $2 notes were still around!!) It used to amaze me! And being the gullible little sister that I am, I was the perfect audience.
I've never really been a huge fan of big stage magic/illusionists though. You know, the Harry Houdinis and the David Copperfields. It always makes me nervous. How will they get out of the water tank! He's hand-cuffed! He's tied up!! It just puts me on edge and I don't enjoy the experience.
Having said all that, Hubs and I had a date night last night and we decided to stay in and watch a movie on our data projector (it's so awesome!!). We chose The Prestige (careful, there are some spoilers on the imdb site) and I was quite excited about the potential of this film. It was a bit hard to get into to start with, and the middle part of the film started to confused me. But I did my best not to be that annoying person who asks "who's that?" and "why is he doing that?" and "ooooooh... but I thought (insert spoiler here) was going to happen." I did my best, but I may not have done well.
The last half an hour was spent with me just going "oooooh! Oh I seeeee" and then the last 10 minutes it was more like "huh???" Of course I had crazy dreams about the movie afterwards, but I've also spent today (after reading the full synopsis on imdb) working it all out. It all makes much more sense to me today, and in a way I'd like to watch it again, knowing all of the "secrets".
I enjoyed this movie on a number of levels - the suspense and excitement, the intruiging storyline, the twists and turns along the way, but I also didn't enjoy it for all the same reasons. I was so nervous the whole time and the ending turned out to be completely unexpected, and as I said, it left me quite confused. I didn't want to appear stupid, so I pretended to Hubs that I understood it all (I DID have 3 glasses of wine throughout the movie which may have impaired me ability to follow the crazy plot) and waited til today to look it all up. It all makes perfect sense to me now!
I'm not sure if I would recommend this movie. It certainly isn't one for a relaxing night in, but if you like a good plot twist, then it might be for you. A word of advice, though, don't drink too much whilst watching it!
I really enjoyed the prestige, left me feeling a little uneasy but definitely left me with a lot to think about.
One of the best things in this is david bowie though. I didn't realise it was him when i watched it, but he seemed so familiar and perfectly mysterious, was so cool to check imdb and discover it was in fact the enigmatic bowie.
I know what you mean! I'm usually so good at picking people in movies and knowing what else they've been in, and his character was so WEIRD! I seriously had NO idea it was him. Magic!