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Rating: 10/10 (23 August 2011)

Back in town, Chris Nolan gave the world one of his best masterpieces. He's without any doubt one of the best directors of the current times. There ain't who does better breathtaking mysteries and sharp thrillers that just delight who ever enjoys mind breaking stories. With The Prestige, Nolan explores the fruitful world of magics. The story's about two magicians, somewhere around 1900. Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). At first they were helping a magician performing his acts. The major act consisted in tying Angier's wife's hands (Julia (Piper Perabo)) and drop her in a cage filled with water. A huge cloth would came down covering it and when it was pushed back up Julia should have already untied the knot and escaped from the cage. Before a show, Angier, Borden and the engineer of illusions, Cutter (Michael Caine) argued about which knot should be used, as Borden defended that another knot to replace the one being used, but both Angier and Cutter refused. In that exact show, Julia drowns inside the cage. Angier immediately blames Borden. Angier and Borden take different paths, Angier hires Cutter as his engineer and Borden Bernard Fallon as his. Angier also hires Olivia Wenscombe (Scarlett Johansson) to help him on stage. Meanwhile, Borden meets and marries Sarah (Rebecca Hall). Performing a trick that Borden called The Bullet Catch, Angier shows up in a Borded's show offering himself to volunteer and tricks Borden, injuring him severely on two fingers. Progressively, competitiveness grows between both. The plot develops with this competition, as each one of them creates the most elaborate and schemer acts of London and try to uncover the partner's in order to beat him. It's amazing how Nolan concentrates the mystery of the tricks until the very last moments, focusing all the answers in the end. If the viewer focuses on certain details he might find possible to unveil the actual solution but my own experience tells me that is not very likely to happen. Hugh Jack is good, better that he accustomed us, but Chritian Bale ruled. I'm not his biggest fan but the truth is there ain't a lot of actors doing better than him nowadays. The truth is that this movie actually has some historical accuracy. For example, Nikola Tesla did in fact experiment in Colorado Springs, building including the Magnifying Transmitter, shown in the movie. But I didn't like some aspects of the tricks, mostly about using impossible magic in this movie. It really works against the movie. In spite of that, this mystery thriller is one of the best I've seen. And yes it's true. You want to see it again the second it's over. 10/10