Entertaining - but slightly overheated - mishmash of Victorian period melodrama and science fiction.

Rating: 7/10 (22 February 2011)

Two Victorian London magicians (Christian Bale and Hugh Jackson) become involved in professional rivalry which has dramatic and far-reaching consequences for both of them.
Magic is by its nature being able to appear to bend the rules of nature and/or physics - while, in reality, being no more able to do so than you or I.
Equally the role of an intelligent viewer is to try and guess and predict the unexplained, the how, or the hidden twist (if you believe there might be one). A film which is allowed to take both feet of the floor (more literally than metaphorically!) destroys all such audience games.
You can't knock Michael Caine for his supporting roles, because he plays them so well. Jackson and Bale are both overheated and a bit hysterical, and besides which, professional rivals tend not to hate each other deep down. There is - again deep down - a respect and admiration for the skill of the other.
Here, for the purpose of the plot and a does of extra drama, this relationship has to turn murderous. This film could have survived, and be even been better, with a bit less plot and a bit more breathing in the dusty backstage atmosphere of the music hall.
(And very well created it is - the art direction is simply superb.)
Feel for female lead Scarlett Johansson, not a lot to do and almost window dressing in this production. I will watch her career with interest, (which red-blooded male wouldn't?) when she has more to do than looking good in an assistant's costume.
While entertained and involved I have to say this is a lesson more in what the audience is prepared to accept than it is a cleverly crafted film script. Many films contain nonsense and illogical developments, but this doesn't lay its cards out on the table early enough. You can't switch formats mid-film.
In many ways, it is a form of cheating. Or more accurately a case of "wouldn't it be good if only....."