Vicky Michael Heaven

My favorite Woody Allen movies are the ones where someone else plays Woody Allen. John Cusack in Bullets over Broadway, Seth Green in Radio Days and Jason Biggs in Anything Else turn in my favorite performances of Woody. The man is such a character himself, that it is always a delight for me to see some else portray him, even Will Ferrell in Melinda and Melinda. So, I was head over heels when Rebecca Hall begins to deconstruct Javier Bardem in front of Scarlett Johansson in Woody’s newest film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. While you can tell that Cristina and Juan Antonio are attracted to each other, Vicky completely removes herself from the situation to comment on the absurdity of it and from that moment on, I was in love with her. Yes, both Scarlett and Penelope Cruz are gorgeous, but Rebecca Hall completely stole the film away from them and every time the story moved away from her, I could not wait for it to come back to her.

Of course, this is all to Woody’s intent. While the movie looked to be a simple sex comedy with Javier, Scarlett and Penelope in a love triangle, the real story is not about any of them. It becomes Vicky’s story and Rebecca Hall’s movie. I know people enjoyed Penelope more or perhaps thought that Scarlett was truly the star of the film, but it was Vicky who undergoes the real transformation in the story, becoming a different person by the end than she was in the beginning. And Hall moves from her very serious and underrated performance in The Prestige, to a light comedic role with an American accent. Right now, I am riding hard for her as my Supporting Actress of the Year.

But that does not take away from anyone else, as the rest of the cast turn in great performances as well. Javier is miles removed from last year’s No Country turn and turns on the leading man charm that has only previously been known to fans of foreign films. Scarlett was a terrific choice as a woman who never knows what she wants; only what she doesn’t want. Maybe it is just me but she always seem to have a slightly perplexed look on her face, like she’s not quite sure what’s going on, but just enjoying the ride. And while I certainly agree with all the praise heaped on Penelope Cruz, I thought she was far better in Volver and that she was barely in the movie at all. She was a force of nature, tearing through the film like she did in Blow, but I never got to really understand her, only what she meant to the other characters. None of my gripes took away from the film at all, as I felt it was an amazing return to form for Woody after films like Match Point and Cassandra’s Dream. The images of Barcelona and the beautiful actors glow as shot by Javier Aguirresarobe, cinematographer of such films as Talk to Her and The Others. The images and narration serve to lull you into a warm feeling similar to kind served up by all the wine enjoyed by the characters and it works brilliantly. I left the theatre with a smile on my face and a Spanish guitar in my heart.

The End of the Most Prestigious Debate

This blog was chosen as a LAMB Chop for the week of May 31 - June 6.

I used to have the greatest job in the world. I worked at a store called DVD Planet and for mere slave wages I got to mock customers with inferior film knowledge than my own, get rare and out of print DVD before they went out on the floor and debate/discuss movies all shift long with my friends. You can find heaven on Earth, in Huntington Beach or Rancho Cucamonga. The best part, of course, were the arguments over films and none of them raged harder or longer than that of The Prestige.

When The Prestige premiered, everybody at work saw in within a week. Later, when it went to the dollar theatre, I am pretty sure everyone saw it again. And thus began our great argument over the movie; did Borden have a twin or a clone? We went back and forth for weeks on the subject and when we finally let it die down and agreed to disagree, the DVD was released. We watched it in the store on a loop and the whole discussion came back with a vengeance.

Before I go on, a brief summary for those who are unfamiliar with the film, and yes, there will be spoilers. The film focuses on two magicians, Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, respectively. They begin as young apprentices, working together and quickly develop a rivalry that escalates beyond either of their expectations. It is a character study more than a movie about magic, but director Christopher Nolan makes a truly fascinating film, requiring more than one view. Without giving too much away (and I advise anyone who has not seen the movie to stop reading here) in regards to the plot, there ends up being multiple incarnations of more than one character, which led directly to the debate in our store.

I maintained the position that Fallon was a clone of Borden, achieved through a similar method to that of Angier’s. I read the novel by Christopher Priest, in which it is implied that Borden had a twin, but I believed that Nolan took creative license and changed certain story elements. I backed up my side with points about the dual nature of Borden/Fallon, the very Jungian qualities of the character, Sarah telling Borden that she ‘knew what he really was’ and the fact that Borden reveals Tesla as the secret to his trick. And the thing that really sold me on the idea was the scene after Borden watches Angier’s “New Transported Man” and yells at Fallon, “Why can’t you out think him?!” To me, that was so clearly him challenging himself to be better than Angier, I couldn’t honestly read it another way.

My friends would argue back that in fact, Tesla is NOT really Borden’s secret. But, I would say that Tesla admits as much that he built the machine once before for another magician. They would talk and talk, but I couldn't care less. All the points they came up with fell on deaf ears and I would never give in an inch to them. But today, as I caught the last ten minutes on cable, it finally hit me. They were right.

Borden never had a clone.

When Lord Caldlow comes to visit Borden/Fallon in jail, Borden is truly astonished to see him. Christian Bale plays the scene perfectly and looking at his face, it hit me like a ton of bricks. He has no flipping idea how he did it. He doesn’t know about the true nature of Tesla’s machine or the clones. And I realize now why for so long I chose to believe otherwise. It’s because Christopher Nolan is a great magician. He kept me looking and thinking and guessing even though the answer was right in front of me. I was looking for the secret, but I couldn’t find it, because I wanted to be fooled. And like Angier/Caldlow says at the end of the film, if you can fool them for just a second then you got to see something really special. It only took me two times to see the movie to realize it was all about movies, but it took me nearly two years before I realized the true prestige.

Thanks for reading and I want to give special thanks to my friends at DVD Planet who helped make this blog happen, in alphabetical order, Alex, Graham, Logan and Phil.

The Prestige directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale is available on DVD from Warner Home Video.

Big Mike's Lil' Update 5/15/08

Quick update before the weekend hits.

- You know what I'm looking forward to that opens this weekend? Nothing. Prince Caspian is the big release, but I did not see the first one and isn't this actually the fourth book? They tried to make me read it in Catholic school, but I never got into it and didn't stay with it long enough to get to the racist and anti-Semetic stuff.

- Michael Moore has announced a follow up to Fahrenheit 9/11. Noble as it may seem , like its predecessor it will probably end up being released too late to have a serious impact on the November elections. Of course, by then President Obama will probably have us out of the war and back on the right track.

- Fox has announced their lineup for next year. 24 returns mid-season with a 2 hour prequel-ish movie, then the series movies to its regular spot. Sarah Conner Chronicles will also return this year in September. We'll see the premiere of The Cleveland Show, the Family Guy spin off starring everybody's favorite 2nd favorite black man and Sit Down, Shut Up the new animated series from Sir lord Mitch Hurwitz, creator of Arrested Development. Check it out for yourself here.

- The Encore channel as been showing The Prestige non-stop over the past week and every time I flip through, I cannot change the channel. It has not worn on me in the least and I only enjoy it more and more, still full of worry that I might eventually tire of it. Particularly, since this is my new desktop background.


- Also, I recently joined the Large Association of Movie Blogs or LAMB. I'm officially LAMB #97. Missed the century mark by this much. Check out the post and the LAMB website at LAMB #97 Big Mike's Movie Blog. Or you can click on the lamb to the right. -->

- Still another week until Indy, two weeks until The Strangers and oh God, is it still eight weeks until The Dark Knight?! I've got two things I'm looking forward to this summer. Batman and getting my new car. In that order.