In order to appease Ben and those like him I will include the following warning:
WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER CONTENT - The Prestige!!!
For those who take things literally all the time, and can't think for yourself... Do not read this post.
For those who always tried to guess what their Christmas presents were ahead of time, and then were disappointed when Christmas came and they already knew everything they were getting... Do not read this post.
For those who simply want to argue about something trivial... Do not read this post
Finally, for those who have not seen The Prestige (I do recommend it), and are thinking about seeing it, and think that seeing the trailer, reading a review, or the words contained here may give something away... Do not read this post.
Now, I will review what occurred on Saturday October 19th, which began our latest debate.
My girlfriend and I were out shopping and decided to see Christopher Nolans new movie, The Prestige. I had been anticipating this movie for months. It appeared to be the better of the two recent magician movies, featured a stellar cast (Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Michael Caine, in addition to Scarlett Johnansson), and having been directed by Christopher Nolan, I imagined there would be some interesting dark elements to the story.
I was very pleased with how Batman Begins turned out, but really went into the movie wondering if it would be on par with Memento or more like Insomnia, which bored me to death. Anyway, we left The Prestige pleased with our decision to spend two and a half hours of our Saturday sitting in a theater packed with strangers. I felt the movie was entertaining and was everything I hoped it would be.
Having discussed some of its finer points with my girlfriend, I decided to call my friend Ben, who I knew had not seen the movie, but was interested in seeing it. All of my friends seem to have a penchant for picking obscure actors to watch for in movies, whether it be Miguel Ferrer, Luis Guzman, John C Reilly, or formerly Phillip Seymour Hoffman. For Ben and Dave, this actor is Ricky Jay. Ricky Jay appears in The Prestige, and I called Ben to tell him to watch out for him, and that he should definitely see the movie. The actual conversation went like this:
Me: Waaazzzuuuppppp?
Ben: Hey, Im going to the Prestige. I called to invite you, but you didn't answer.
Me: I saw that. I was watching it at that moment.
Ben: Oh cool, how was it?
Me: It was pretty good. Hey, can I tell you something about it? Don't worry its not going to ruin the ending?
Ben: What?
Me: That actor you like is in it. The one from Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and heartbreakers.
Ben: Ricky Jay! I know, we looked up the cast when we saw the trailer.
Me: Sweet. Well, have fun.
Ben: Peace.
At 11:30 PM I received a call from Ben informing me that we would never discuss movies or anything ever again. Apparently in the above conversation I had conveyed the plot of the film, which caused it to be ruined upon watching it. To me it looks like I may have confirmed two things:
1) That the movie had a plot
2) That the movie had an ending.
Me? I would have assumed both things going into the movie, but I guess confirming them to Ben was enough for him to search for every clue upon watching the film, and cause it to be ruined.
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2 comments:
Nice review...Hugel thinks he's Roger Ebert here.
Unfortunately he has a poor recollection of our actual conversation, leaving a few holes in his semi-comprehensible ramblings. Before he brought up anything about Ricky Jay, he jokingly threatened to spoil the ending of the film for me. This resulted in me realizing there was a twist ending to the film (something I was not aware of), which is what ruined it for me. I ended up watching the movie fixated on finding the twist (which I recognized at an absurdly early point of the film), and didn't get the satisfaction of being surprised. I was justifiably upset.
I stand by my review of the call.
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