When are we going to have a "Carter Beats the Devil"?

Rating: 7/10 (24 October 2006)

As I'm sure there will be dozens of poetic write ups for this movie available, I'll cut to the chase. What could have been a simple period piece about magicians was instead a decent drama. It had an atmosphere similar to what I would expect a feature film of Carter Beats the Devil to have. When are we going to be able to see that get turned into a movie? What made this one unique was the fact that amongst the obvious, even expected, mysteries expected to entertain the audience, there were a few that catch you off guard. Get the audience thinking in one direction and then show them something they didn't think was possible. Not sure if it fell on the editing floor, but there's no explanation for how Hugh Jackman knew Christian Bale went under the stage and made the decision not to conclude the show by coming out for the prestige part, thereby setting Bale up for murder. Anyone figure that out from the movie? Also, I can't remember Hugh or Bale's character name. I could only think of them as themselves. Same holds true for most actors in the movie except one. Tesla, I mean, David Bowie, was phenomenal. Small role, but done very well. In an era where magicians lived the grand life of rock star performers, it's an homage to have Bowie/tesla the scientist make his entrance through a performance curtain of high energy electricity.