An Original Movie

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2007)

Spoilers:
The Prestige focuses on the blood feud between American abroad Robert Angier (Jackman) and Cockney Alfred Borden (Christian Bale).
They're introduced as "volunteers" picked from an English music hall audience to bind magician's assistant Julia (Piper Perabo). Plunged into a water tank, she miraculously escapes. In fact, the two young men are apprentice magicians, secretly a part of the act. Further, Julia is wife to personable Robert. He's a natural showman, while taciturn Alfred is a more gifted illusionist.
But in the name of slick presentation, Alfred takes risks that don't pass muster with safety-minded mentor Cutter (Michael Caine). One day, Alfred ties a more-difficult yoke with Julia's permission that results in her being unable to free herself; she drowns before an ax can break the glass tank.Robert is enraged and inconsolable,particularly when he spies Alfred with new wife, Sarah (Rebecca Hall), and baby,the happy family he feels robbed of.
The men develop separate acts, with Robert's successful while Alfred toils in dives. Nonetheless, Robert remains consumed by thoughts of vengeance. What starts out an exchange of petty humiliations turns into vicious, increasingly violent one-upmanship.
Seeing Alfred perform a stupendous act called "The Transported Man," Robert vows to steal it. When he's unable to figure it out himself, he dispatches on stage assistant and offstage lover Olivia (Scarlett Johansson) to seduce the secret from his rival. This central chronology is interspersed throughout with dual flash-forward threads. In one, Robert travels to Colorado Springs to petition reclusive inventor Nikola Tesla (David Bowie) to build a machine like the transport he supposedly built for Alfred. In the other thread, Alfred stands trial for the death of Robert, whom we've seen drown just like his late wife.
This movie actually turned out better than I had expected. Jackman, Bale and Johansson did a particularly good job. Overall, this movie's definitely worth seeing. A few twists in the end will leave you in awe, but you'll love it just the same. Great acting, original plot, amazing magic tricks revealed and not boring at all. If you enjoyed watching "The Illusionist", you will not be disappointed.
Highly recommended. 8/10