"It is very rare to see... real magic."

Rating: 8/10 (27 November 2011)

Oh man, this one had me right up to the part with the transporter/duplicator machine. Until then it was a compelling and complex tale dealing in murder, mystery and intrigue with a clever backdrop of magicians attempting to outdo each other with the grandest illusion of all time. What I'm not going to do is go back and watch this three times in a row like I did with "Memento" because when all is said and done, I won't be any better off. In a way I felt cheated that an 1880's era film would bring in a fictional sci-fi element the way it did. It seems to me the story could have gotten around that contrivance to come up with a more realistic resolution that confined itself to existing science and techniques of illusion. Then, when Borden (Christian Bale) had his final showdown with Angier (Hugh Jackman), he could have caught the bullet to end the picture on a more promising note. I don't really mean to sound so harsh on the film because like I said, up to the Tesla part this story was going great guns. Maybe because the guy portraying Tesla looked so much like David Bowie, it kept me off stride for a while as well. Then it turned out to be Bowie when the credits rolled, and I was back to thinking about that business with the cats and the hats. Maybe the whole thing was an illusion.