Don't Expect Too Much or it may be Disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (11 March 2007)

This is one of those movies where the story is the main attraction. It is a very sad and disturbing movie about intense and violent rivalry, this time in the field of magic, at the turn of the century.
The set and art direction, as well as the costumes are also very good. Interesting thing also to inject a real character, Nikola Tesla (played by David Bowie!), in there. Did not know that Tesla had a bad conflict with Thomas Edison and it was that severe! (Should read up on that....)
I felt that the acting styles of the two leads were one of the disappointing points of the movie. Hugh Jackman tends to be too over the top, as if he were in a stage production. Christian Bale is severely underplaying his part, his face seemed to be in a perpetual scowl. Of course, the fact that they were playing two dislikable characters probably contributed to this.
The direction of the movie by Christopher Nolan is typical of him. Jumping back and forth in time, it was OK but I felt it made the movie a bit hard to follow at the beginning. But once you get the drift, it was very interesting.
****Spolier Alert****
Maybe it was just me, but one major thing that confused me was Julia, the wife of Angier (Hugh Jackman). She looked like Scarlett Johanssen. Then later after the wife dies in a tragic stage accident, Angier's assistant, Olivia, was again Scarlett Johanssen. Admittedly, I had to stop the DVD right at that point and run to the computer to check IMDb because it was affecting my appreciation of the movie. Turns out that the wife Julia was played by a different actress, Piper Perabo. Olivia is really Scarlett. OK then, these two girls were just fixed up in too much the same way. Once that was settled, I was able to follow the flow of the story much better.
The ending is another problem for me. After all the revenge and the deaths, I felt the happy ending for one of them was completely undeserved.