Proof that an ending can make or break a movie

Rating: 6/10 (14 November 2006)

Man, what a great movie...until the last 5 minutes.
"The Prestige" is a film that makes even the most jaded non-believer stare in awe at feats of magic. Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) are rivals in the aforementioned field, and develop an acid antagonism when Borden 'accidentally' allows Angier's wife to die suspended in a tank of water. Their vengeance soars on a level both personal and professional, with each vying for the other's popularity, women, and magical secrets. At the core of this is a trick of which no one knows the key--titled 'The Transported Man,' it entails Borden teleporting himself from one place to another; Angier meets up with eccentric electro-magician Tesla (David Bowie), who seems to hold the answer.
Director Chrisopher Nolan, who surprised us with "Memento" and rejuvenated the ailing "Batman" franchise, gives us another worthy, highly entertaining film poised for greatness...until the last 5 minutes. In his remake of "Insomnia," Nolan's characters became slavish victims to the plot, and the same happens at the end of "The Prestige." After bobbing and weaving in a multitude of directions and keeping us guessing AND fully invested in the characters, it betrays our trust completely and leaves us with the sour notion that everything that happened in the preceding 2 hours didn't matter all that much.
In a movie that pushes the figurative and literal limits of trickery, it seems like a low-brow deception for Nolan to leave us with the last-minute twists that would be more at home in the "Saw" series. Bale, Michael Caine, and Jackman (giving his best performance yet) are so strong--and their dispositions so absorbing--that the ending feels like the sort of dishonest fraud we'd get from a Three-Card Monte dealer. Yes, despite the maddening contrivances, "The Prestige"'s twists DO make sense--but I felt the characters deserved a more sincere, straight-faced coda.
In "Secret Window," Johnny Depp told us: "The most important part is the ending...and this one is very good." Too bad the same can't be said for "The Prestige," a movie that is so passionately bound for greatness that its last-minute deceptions make the disappointment that much greater.