Austin Movie Show review (brilliant and surprising!)

Rating: 9/10 (24 October 2006)

I see A LOT of movies, and very few big Hollywood studio-produced movies surprise me anymore. I can see the cheap, predictable, and formulaic story lines and twist endings a mile away. "The Prestige" is not one of those movies. Like a bad magician attempting to perform the bullet trick, I was blown away!
Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are devious feuding magicians, living in turn-of-the-century London (not to be confused with another movie about a magician living in turn-of-the-century Europe, which was, honestly, crap). Jackman and Bale start off as partners, working in the same magic act. But when Bale accidentally kills Jackman's wife in a blotched magic trick, the two spend the rest of their lives trying to destroy one another.
Every twist in the plot is more mind-blowing than the one before, and the ending is nothing short of spectacular. "The Prestige" may not leave you believing in magic, but it left me believing in movie magic, and I haven't felt that in a long time.