Shakespearian in both scope and quality

Rating: 10/10 (24 August 2009)

If the script for The Prestige was found in Shakespeare's house, it would credibly be accepted as his work. It is firmly based in period facts, and goes beyond them. It has the gorgeous talent of allegory, appealing to all, and to each at different levels. If you follow them all, the movie will bring a shiver to your spine when, as layers of reality, each as real as the next, are peeled away in this shrewed screen play, revealing men and man, women and woman, tragedy and joy.
So many fragments of the story mirror others: wife's and partners and girl-friends and Daedalus-like science... yet the film holds them all clear in mind. The film itself is finely crafted: gorgeous detailed sets reward the eye, and multiple viewings.
The casting is perfect: Bale at his driven, rather than simply raging best. Jackman, so brilliantly failed and jealous, Scarlet and Rebecca hall, in a partnership completely distinct from VIcky Cristina, but which must surely have alerted Woody Allen's eye.
David Bowie is perfect and his own fame helps convey Tesla's own struggle with being ahead of his time. The presence of Andy Serkis (You MUST see him in Einstein and Eddington) is becoming a code for must-see movie.
This is, simply, one of the best movies of the decade.