The Prestige (or Where did the little birdy go?)

Sometimes a movie has everything. Stars, direction, decent plotting, art direction, and yet it falls short.

Enter The Prestige. Looks great, compelling premise, great cast. Just didn't work.

Why? No emotion. There was nothing to tie the audience to the characters. There was nobody to empathise with because all of the characters, even Michael Caine, were pretty repellent.

On many levels The Prestige edges towards overcoming this fatal flaw through its labyrinthine (yet predictable) plot and sumptuous look but ultimately, when a characters motivations are called into question, there needs to be some belief on the audience's part that these characters feel deeply, and there was not even an inkling of that.

A good film but one which is doomed to look at greatness from behind the electrified fence. So near, yet so far.