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Christopher Nolan is proving to be one of the most exciting and reliable directors we have today. He has yet to make a bad movie and even though I had some problems with The Prestige it was an incredibly well-crafted film that had me riveted the whole way through.

The story is about the career-long conflicts between two turn of the century magicians in England played by Christian Bale (Batman) and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine). Like we haven't longed to see those two go at it before. Bale and Jackman give great performances as does Michael Caine (Alfred the butler) as Cutter the engineer. A tragic accident during a magic trick involving a water tank claims the life of Jackman's wife and sets off the vicious the antagonism between the two magicians. As they try to one-up and sabotage each other's acts we get a glimpse into the unseemly backstage-view of 19th century magic seeing how some of these tricks are performed. Both magicians are obsessed with their craft and will play very dirty to get ahead.

The problem I have with the film is the very end which involves a couple of twists that I won't spoil here. One of them however is pretty obvious if you watch closely (like they tell you to do at the beginning of the film). The other seems to go against the sensibilities set up by the film, introducing an otherworldly element that, although thought-provoking and interesting, disregards the nature of illusion for the sake of science fiction.

Posted at October 25, 2006 02:03 PM