The big revelation is a big let down

Rating: 6/10 (24 February 2008)

"The Prestige" is a very well crafted movie. The camera work, the lighting, the set decoration, the costumes and the acting for the most part are very well done. The way it flashback and flash forward yet maintains its cohesiveness and and build suspense is a testimony to Christopher Nolan as a film director and to his editor. Despite all this the big surprise the audience is hoping for is pretty much revealed to anyone closely paying attention with about 50 minutes left in the movie.
The film is about a couple of magicians who were co-apprentices when they were young, until a tragedy set off a bitter rivalry. The rivalry reach a climax as they try to out do each other with a trick called the teleported man. The quest for the answer sets the audience for a promise of big surprises yet in the end what we get is something so obvious and yet another one that is so far fetched that it stretches one's suspension of disbelief.
To me the only surprise is what happened to the Hugh Jackman character in the end. It's what happened to him in the beginning that created the bitterness among the two friends. And the Christian Bale character was in no way at all likable. But I suppose it's appropriate because it's when we realize that the movie is no longer about the revenge but about the egos of the magicians/showman. They are not just trying to awe their audience but also to one up each other. They want to come up with one trick that will make their fellow magicians envious.
Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale gave very good performances, Michael Caine is wonderful as always playing an older magician who guides Jackman. Scarlett Johannson did a decent job although her English accent seem to change, very early on it was as cockney as Mr. Caine's but later on it sounded more upper class. David Bowie was a bit of a surprise as real life scientist Nikola Tesla. I didn't recognize him at first.
Over all I would say that as a period piece and a character study of magicians it was well done but it's main failing is the big promise and the big revelations of the teleported man, one was obvious and the other was ridiculous.