My Reelity

Is this the reel life or is this just fantasy?

Are You Watching Closely?

Posted by Ruok On October - 24 - 2006


The Pledge. The Turn. The Prestige.

Chris Nolan does it again for me, and I think this is one of the best movies I have watched so far this year. I particularly like the fact that the movie itself paces along the lines of the pledge, the turn (oh so many turns) and the prestige, just like the act of magic it was describing!

Every great magic trick consists of three acts. The first act is called “The Pledge”; The magician shows you something ordinary, but of course… it probably isn’t. The second act is called “The Turn”; The magician makes his ordinary some thing do something extraordinary. Now if you’re looking for the secret… you won’t find it, that’s why there’s a third act called, “The Prestige”; this is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you’ve never seen before.

I should say every great movie should have these three acts as well. :)

But I think what gives me the greatest satisfaction from watching the movie is that guessing correctly the secret behind Alfred Borden’s “The Transported Man” at the time when he was talking to Rupert Angier’s double. And then confirming that guess way before it was revealed. To tell you guys exacty when I confirmed my guess, I fear, would spoil it for those who haven’t watched it. But if you really do want to know, just drop me an email. 😉

After confirming the guess, I just marvelled at the way the movie had given so many clues right from the start to Borden’s secret. Its such a great tease that the movie opens with “Are you watching closely?”, cuz truely, if you’d watched closely, you’d be able to figure out the secret soon enough. 😛

3 Responses to “Are You Watching Closely?”

  1. Qiaoyun says:

    oooh i just watched it. great show! i think i need to watch it again… i was confused for like the first 30 minutes of the show cos they kept flashing back. and also, i didn’t know that Angier was Hugh Jackson until the freaking credits rolled, so the entire show, half my mind was trying to figure who the damn actor who looks so familiar was! duh…. needless to say, i didn’t guess anything because my mind was too busy trying to piece together all the flashbacks into sensible, chronological order. lol. i hate flashbacks.

    oh, oh, but i recognised gollum! hahaha. =P

  2. Ruok says:

    QY, betcha dunno whos David Bowie too. ^.^

  3. Qiaoyun says:

    got david bowie?

    but i don’t even know what david bowie looks like. i only know the name. 😛

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