The point isn't always to fool the viewer!

Rating: 7/10 (4 March 2007)

It seems to me that too many commenters are invested in being tricked by the film successfully or otherwise: either they are completely baffled by the ending and delighted for being duped; or disappointed because the film was "confusing" and they didn't get it; or think they are really clever because they figured it all out in the first 15 minutes or whatever--and while miffed because they actually put together the narrative in their head, and have to sit through another 1.5 hours of story that is not a "mystery" and which doesn't "trick" them, console themselves by beleiving they are ever so much cleverer than the stupid Nolan brothers. Or whatever.
The key thing to me is NOT whether I was tricked successfully or not (I figured the twin thing out pretty quickly, was not entirely prepared for the sci-fi angle, but wasn't devastated by the premise...kinda liked it actually). Viewer trickery is a cheap....trick. Like a bad magic show. You know it, you can sort of figure it out, but who cares. really?
Rather the issue is within the narrative itself: The story of these men and their behavior. WHY is Angier so blind to the truth of his rivals trick? It makes him so crazy, he cannot see the obvious...so crazy he succeeds in finding the means to make the "trick" actually real--a man is actually physically transported, and no trick is involved. He makes the magic "real" What one should be considering is the mentality of this character...one whose obsession results in this horrifying technology...and yet who is so small minded as to use it only for this silly trick he "can't figure out".
Remember he cannot figure out the Chinese magician's trick because he cannot imagine sacrificing himself.
He is ultimately a tragic, ludicrous person who cannot see beyond his own narcissistic obsessions. The aristocrat is desperate to prove that he is superior to the working class magician and spends his life and his fortune doing so. he only "wins" when he leaves the realm of stage magic and illusion and uses science he bought and paid for.
It is really a movie about his character, perhaps. ALso, his willingness to suicide every night--to watch himself die--expresses his character's fixation on finding a way to "get his hands dirty" like a "real" more successful magician.
* * * Beside the point point: Scarlett appeared to be put there by some market study that believes a love story needs to be shoehorned in. Utter waste of time that could've been spent developing the magician characters.