A la Peanut Butter Sandwiches!

This weekend we watched The Illusionist with Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti. (The film included them, they did not watch the film with us.) We are now the only people I have met that have watched both The Illusionist AND The Prestige. Both are turn of the century (19th/20th) movies about stage magic. Both are moody and stylish. Both contain a SECRET.

I will have to say that I like The Prestige better. Not just because I saw it first, although that can't be totally dismissed. TP just seemed like it had a little bit more depth that TI. TP seemed a little more interested at winking at the audience and saying "allll of this can be explained" and taking the audience through a good magic trick. TI kind of wanted it both ways. On the one hand it was magic and a good magician never explains his tricks. But on the other hand since it's a movie, and you can do ANYTHING, there was no real difference between a stage trick they don't explain and just plain magic. There was nothing that really established WHY Eisenhiem was such a good magician. He just was because the movie said he was. TP showed you EXACTLY why Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman were great magicians.

She Who Is My Wife liked TI better for reasons of plot and story. Heh.

I'd recommend both, but I plan on watching The Prestige a couple more times.