THE PRESTIGE
Illusion. Sleight Of Hand. Legerdemain. Misdirection. Leading the audience to think or look in one direction while the magician performs the switch or trick or deception in places he KNOWS you're NOT looking bcause he has successfully misdirected your attention elsewhere. It is the basic building block of a conjuring trick.
Successful mystery writers like Agatha Christie practiced such deceptive sleight of hand writing for decades, engaging the reader in deception, making them look at the butler while it was the vicar's wife who was up to mischief.
Today's master practicioner of twisty narratives in books,Jeffery Deaver, so enjoys pulling the rug out from under you, one is liable to experience a concussion from having fallen on ones' back once too often as yet another "conjuring" narrative trick is revelaed.
In films, M.Night Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense" is still the best narrative trick, the shock ending not only knocking you backwards with the reveal, but it's flash-recap of all that took place before also slyly telling you that "Hey, the clues were all there..but you just weren't paying attention" and following at a close second is Christopher Nolan's "Memento", a narrative trickery based on the unreliability of one's memory compounded by it's reverse-order telling of the tale.
Since Nolan's latest flick opens with a voice-over saying "Are you watching closely?" , expect to be misled, deceived and obfuscated by it's diabolically delicious tale of 2 duelling magicians in early 20th-century England.
The 2 conjurors, Rupert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden(Christian Bale) are put on a collision course in professional rivalry when the former blames the latter for the death of his wife in a performance gone horribly wrong.
As each tries to upstage the other( and engage in some very unprofessional sabotaging of the others performance), hatred spirals into obsession especially on the part of Angier when he feels he must, at all cost, find out the secret behind Borden's incredible Transported Man trick, disappearing and then re-appearing somewhere else. It's an obsession that has him "pimping" his lover cum assistant Olive ( a rather plastic Scarlett Johansson) to Borden in a bid to find out his secret, a ruse that back fires when she falls for the latter (On a side note, in these liberated times, why do film makers still think it's engaging to have a female character,supposedly the heroine, flit from one man's bed to another in rapid succession? Doesn't work guys. See Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane from the Spidey flicks and more specifically Kate Beckinsale's nurse in Pearl Harbor).
Angier also travels to Colorado to meet the Engineering whiz behind Borden's famous act, the renowned scientist Nikolai Tesla( a terrific David Bowie) , in a bid to find answers. And here Nolan sets up a similar rivalry between Tesla and that other great scientific mind of that time, Thomas Edison, mischieviously suggesting that rivalry between 2 great minds in a similar field is a given. But there are differences. While Tesla and Edison were possibly equals in the genious department, our battling magicians are not. Borden is clearly the better magician with Angier being the better showman. Borden is cold and calculating while Angier is obsessive. As Tesla warns Angier, "No good can come of this" and he and we know the movie is hurtling towards an ending that is anything but happy. But it's the ride Nolan takes you on that ensures you're strapped in for the full duration.Complemented with powerful performances by the 2 leads, ably supported by the ever reliable Michael Caine, a peek into the world of magic and a narrative arc choc-a-bloc of tricks(like Memento Nolan juggles timelines like the 3rd unseen conjuror of this tale), The Prestige is a must see. WATCH CLOSELY now.....
I READ......
Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap
A collection of short stories set in Thailand. Gentle snap-shots of a Thailand we don't often see or hear about elevate this collection. Still,one wishes for some resolution to the stories, be it a son's journey with his mother before she goes blind or a Cock Fighter's fued with a local bully. It would have made the tales sting with the spice of a tom yam instead of going down gently like Green Curry.
ALSO SAW....
BLACK RAIN
This 1989 Ridley Scott actioner, remastered on DVD still packs a wallop, thanks to great atmospeheric photography and well choreographed action scenes.
CURRENTLY READING...
THE PRESTIGE BY CHRISTOPHER PRIEST
Sunday, October 22, 2006
THE PRESTIGE
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
The Proposition
Plot: The titular deal is offered to the 2nd of the Murderous Outlaw Burns Brothers,Charley, by English soldier Captain Stanley: Ride out to the outback, find his vicious elder sibling Arthur and kill him, and in return, he will not hang his younger one Mikey come Christmas day.
Moral conflicts ensue,as Charley is in no mood to off big brother once he finds him, and back home townsfolk bay for the younger Burns blood as Stanley's concience stand in their way....
A slow,languorous pace, lots of wide-eyed vista shots of the arid Australian landscape, close-ups of dirty,unshaven faces,brief bursts of intense violence followed by looooong inert mood-setting scenes of drama punctuated by furtive glances, minimalist pseudo-intellectual discourse scored to dirge-sounding bush ballads: Welcome to the Arty Western, done Down Under style.
It's the sort of movie where scenes of a man being flogged is inter-cut to one of another singing "Peggy Gordon" ,said scene meant to underscore the point that it's not just about violence you see, it's also a lyrical medidation of it; But then.. you get a close up shot of a bare-back ripped to pieces after the whipping and the Whipper actually wringing blood off the instrument and you wonder... why not stick with loving close-ups of the flogging exercise a la Passion of The Christ and leave the Celtic ballads in the new Corrs CD?
I'm in mixed minds about this gritty,brutal but nevertheless well made Antipodian Western. It's a fairly effective study in morality, much like Eastwood's Unforgiven. But where that Oscar Winner had a plodding Mid-Section which was compensated by a powerfully charismatic star-cast, The Proposition often mutes it's equally talented thespians. Guy Pierce, the so-called "hero" of the piece is so low key he only comes alive in the bloody climax. Danny Huston as the Villain spends far too much time in philosopher mode. The extremely talented Emily Watson(as Stanley's wife) is a study of imploding grief and dread when the character could have used at least one Serious Outburst Scene. It's up to Ray Winstone to carry the show, and he does so admirably. His Captain Stanley, who comes across as the villain in the movie's opening scene(especially after a brutal pistol-whipping he delivers) is a wonderful study in conflict, his sense of a Man on a Mission to civilize the barbaric Outback slowly but surely compromised by his resolute stand on Justice, of being a Gentleman who keeps his word,even if the promise was made to criminals, a promise which the town folk and his superior ( a slimy David Wenham, iradicating the dashing Faramir in LOTR once and for all) have no intention of letting him keep.
The struggle to maintain civilized behaviour in a brutal land, as driven home Sledgehammer style, by a scene depicting Stanley and wife, dressed in their finest, sitting down to a Christmas dinner,table replete with the finest cutlery, and exchanging pleasant talk in polished tones, contrasted against the barren landscape outside their homes populated by unwashed and grimy folk and impending violence, is an apt theme for a revisionist Western. But one wishes that these tough 'ole boys would tone down the pontificating a notch, strap on their pistols and let their bullets do the talking.
Listening to John Hurt's erudite bounty hunter gas-bagging about Darwin's Theory of Evolution, one does wonder, if guys really talked as much as these fellers back in those Bad Old Days, they would probably have been the first lot be culled under Nature's Grand Natural Selection Plan, gently nudged along by an Aboriginal spear or two.
A little less Bark and a lot more Bite would have made this Proposition more palatable....
Moral conflicts ensue,as Charley is in no mood to off big brother once he finds him, and back home townsfolk bay for the younger Burns blood as Stanley's concience stand in their way....
A slow,languorous pace, lots of wide-eyed vista shots of the arid Australian landscape, close-ups of dirty,unshaven faces,brief bursts of intense violence followed by looooong inert mood-setting scenes of drama punctuated by furtive glances, minimalist pseudo-intellectual discourse scored to dirge-sounding bush ballads: Welcome to the Arty Western, done Down Under style.
It's the sort of movie where scenes of a man being flogged is inter-cut to one of another singing "Peggy Gordon" ,said scene meant to underscore the point that it's not just about violence you see, it's also a lyrical medidation of it; But then.. you get a close up shot of a bare-back ripped to pieces after the whipping and the Whipper actually wringing blood off the instrument and you wonder... why not stick with loving close-ups of the flogging exercise a la Passion of The Christ and leave the Celtic ballads in the new Corrs CD?
I'm in mixed minds about this gritty,brutal but nevertheless well made Antipodian Western. It's a fairly effective study in morality, much like Eastwood's Unforgiven. But where that Oscar Winner had a plodding Mid-Section which was compensated by a powerfully charismatic star-cast, The Proposition often mutes it's equally talented thespians. Guy Pierce, the so-called "hero" of the piece is so low key he only comes alive in the bloody climax. Danny Huston as the Villain spends far too much time in philosopher mode. The extremely talented Emily Watson(as Stanley's wife) is a study of imploding grief and dread when the character could have used at least one Serious Outburst Scene. It's up to Ray Winstone to carry the show, and he does so admirably. His Captain Stanley, who comes across as the villain in the movie's opening scene(especially after a brutal pistol-whipping he delivers) is a wonderful study in conflict, his sense of a Man on a Mission to civilize the barbaric Outback slowly but surely compromised by his resolute stand on Justice, of being a Gentleman who keeps his word,even if the promise was made to criminals, a promise which the town folk and his superior ( a slimy David Wenham, iradicating the dashing Faramir in LOTR once and for all) have no intention of letting him keep.
The struggle to maintain civilized behaviour in a brutal land, as driven home Sledgehammer style, by a scene depicting Stanley and wife, dressed in their finest, sitting down to a Christmas dinner,table replete with the finest cutlery, and exchanging pleasant talk in polished tones, contrasted against the barren landscape outside their homes populated by unwashed and grimy folk and impending violence, is an apt theme for a revisionist Western. But one wishes that these tough 'ole boys would tone down the pontificating a notch, strap on their pistols and let their bullets do the talking.
Listening to John Hurt's erudite bounty hunter gas-bagging about Darwin's Theory of Evolution, one does wonder, if guys really talked as much as these fellers back in those Bad Old Days, they would probably have been the first lot be culled under Nature's Grand Natural Selection Plan, gently nudged along by an Aboriginal spear or two.
A little less Bark and a lot more Bite would have made this Proposition more palatable....
Monday, October 09, 2006
Over The Hedge
Having bought a whole bunch of animated flicks for my nephew when I see him at the end of this month in Mumbai, the child in me was tempted enough to watch one of them last night.
Over The Hedge, the latest CGI animation from Dream Works , is delightful from the get go.
Plot: A group of animals fresh off hibernation are about to begin storing food for the upcoming winter ( a mere 274 days away) when they discover, to their shock that much of their beloved woodland has been demolished for a 54-acre housing estate that is separated from the jungle by the titular hedge. Verne, the cautious turtle and leader of the animals is quickly upstaged by the appearance of a wily raccoon RJ who sweet-talks the group into going over the hedge into suburbia where food is a-plenty. Verne is, understandably, tail-tinglingly suspicious of the new member. And for good reason as RJ has a hidden agenda.....
While Pixar still reigns supreme in this field, for me the added bonus of a Dream Works offering is their use of high profile stars to give voice to the numerous animal cast. So Bruce Willis' smarmy tones fleshes out RJ the raccoon's street-smart coolness while comedian Garry Shandling is perfect as the straight arrow Verne. Look out also for a hilarious William Shatner as a possum, Nick Nolte as mean bear Vincent and last but definitely not least, a scene stealing Thomas Haden Church as the Verminator, Animal exterminator extrodinaire. And let's not forget the always dependable Steve Carel as IQ challenged squirrel Hammy.Although after a similarly moronic turn in Will Ferrel's Anchorman, playing a moronic dim wit is something the 40-Year Old Virgin could do in his sleep. And there's a Persian Cat voiced by an actor whose name I can't recall who'll crack you up! He's that good!!
There's the usual story-with-a-moral wrap up that is endemic to these films( they are made primarily for kids of course) but with enough in-jokes for the adults, a bristling pace and gorgeous animation, chalk this up as a winner for Dream Works after the less than satisfying Madagascar.
Over The Hedge, the latest CGI animation from Dream Works , is delightful from the get go.
Plot: A group of animals fresh off hibernation are about to begin storing food for the upcoming winter ( a mere 274 days away) when they discover, to their shock that much of their beloved woodland has been demolished for a 54-acre housing estate that is separated from the jungle by the titular hedge. Verne, the cautious turtle and leader of the animals is quickly upstaged by the appearance of a wily raccoon RJ who sweet-talks the group into going over the hedge into suburbia where food is a-plenty. Verne is, understandably, tail-tinglingly suspicious of the new member. And for good reason as RJ has a hidden agenda.....
While Pixar still reigns supreme in this field, for me the added bonus of a Dream Works offering is their use of high profile stars to give voice to the numerous animal cast. So Bruce Willis' smarmy tones fleshes out RJ the raccoon's street-smart coolness while comedian Garry Shandling is perfect as the straight arrow Verne. Look out also for a hilarious William Shatner as a possum, Nick Nolte as mean bear Vincent and last but definitely not least, a scene stealing Thomas Haden Church as the Verminator, Animal exterminator extrodinaire. And let's not forget the always dependable Steve Carel as IQ challenged squirrel Hammy.Although after a similarly moronic turn in Will Ferrel's Anchorman, playing a moronic dim wit is something the 40-Year Old Virgin could do in his sleep. And there's a Persian Cat voiced by an actor whose name I can't recall who'll crack you up! He's that good!!
There's the usual story-with-a-moral wrap up that is endemic to these films( they are made primarily for kids of course) but with enough in-jokes for the adults, a bristling pace and gorgeous animation, chalk this up as a winner for Dream Works after the less than satisfying Madagascar.
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