The Prestige

To be honest, I normally can’t stand movies that have a twist at the end. Far too often, that twist undermines and lessens everything that you have seen before. What makes The Prestige so unique is that the ending actually accentuates and deepens the rest of the film. It isn’t a “gotcha” moment or a “bet you never would have guessed this”, it’s a moment that solidifies motivations and what characters are actually about. It’s groundwork that is laid throughout the film that makes the payoff an understandable surprise, not a shocking surprise. In both cases they are surprises, but the understandable surprise actually fits the story & characters. It’s simply a means to making you better understand motivations, not pull one over on you. Glad that Nolan gets that right in this.

Then again, this is Nolan, so of course it’s clunky as all get out and convoluted at times. But it works for something like this more than it does in other films.