An unusual thing has happened this year... we have many surprisingly good movies. Now, two more are added. And I am still eager for Aronofsky's (π, Requiem for a dream) The Fountain.
From Scorcese's masterpieces I have only seen Taxi Driver. Not Raging Bull, not Goodfellas. I've seen Casino and Gangs of New York and the Aviator. I was impressed from the last two, and I was amazed from The Departed. The movie is fast paced, it makes sense, and it has the most interesting character develepment I've seen recently. The performances are simply top notch, I would be surprised if not at least two people get nominated for Oscar here. The movie also has my favorite song at this time of the year, Shipping up to Boston, which is now officially the startup sound for my windows. Plus, finally Jack Nicolson stopped being stupid with all these weird comedies he acted in and delivers a performance that only he can deliver. You just can't get enough from him.The most important item is the ending though. After they catch the bad guy, which is were most normal movies would end, the story keeps going for another half an hour improving on the details and finalizing in a brutal, spectacular, amazing Scorcese finale. Make sure you watch it in a room full of people - they'll be screaming at the final shots.
Are you watching closely?
And now let's move on to my favorite movie foe this year, Cristopher Nolan's The Prestige.
By the way his first movie, Memento, is probably MY favorite movie ever. His next two films, Insomnia and Batman Begins are alright but nothing extraordinary. Until you get to his 4th movie, The Prestige.I cannot even begin to describe how something that begins with a view of magician hats and the words "Are you watching closely?" and looks like a simple story evolves through a maze of twists and turns into an extraordinary finale that when you think back about it is so amazing to grasp. The film jumps back and forth in time and in space all time, and yet you never lose track of what's going on. All the mysteries of the movie are encapsulated perfectly in the first 3 minutes of the movie, where Michael cane explains to us how a magic trick consists of 3 parts while he is performing a magic trick were he vanishes a bird and its cage. If you watch closely, these 3 minutes, the whole movie, is just a magic trick. As he says, we are fooled because we want to be fooled.
The magic tricks performed are pure pleasure to watch on screen. Plus, Nolan provides us insight on how some of them are done (they credit David Copperfield in the credits), which makes it even more enjoyable. At the end though, the movie leaves you with a weird feeling. You won't feel amazed. You will feel maybe scrathicg your head wondering why is it any good. But that is because you have learned how the trick is done, what lies behind the mystery. In the same way, as they promptly mention in the film, a magic trick is amazing only when you don't know how it's done. Once you figure it out, it becomes banal and trivial. In hte same way, the movie at the end becomes null. But it is because the whole movie is a big trick, and the Prestige has to be revealed at the end. I came to realize that as the days were passing, and so day by day the movie ranks higher and higher in my mind. Unlike its predecessor, The Illusionist, were the plot evolves mostly linerly, here all kinds of things happen. Nolan has enough material to provide 3 movies, not just one.
This will be a much discussed movie, because some things remain unclear at the end or doesn't seem initially to have a good explanation. The forums are on fire with people discussing the open ends of the movie, and this is part of the fun. I don't remember discussing a movie so much since The Sixth Sense, or The Matrix, or Mullholand Drive.
Are you watching closely?
