A deceptive, spellbinding piece of supreme film-making

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2007)

"Are you watching closely?". This question is repeated several times in Christopher Nolan's fifth feature, a complex, compelling opus that sees him return to Mementoish territory.
Set in Victorian London, The Prestige deals with magic, although not the kind we're used to: what we see is a much darker side of this fascinating profession, which might even be lethal to some people. In fact, death is present from the beginning: right after Michael Caine's opening monologue about the three acts every magic trick is divided in (the third act gives the film its title) we witness a tragedy, as the famous Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), aka The Great Danton, drowns during his last performance. His colleague and former friend Alfred "The Professor" Borden (Christian Bale) is accused of murdering the showman, and as he's sent to jail the events that led to that fatal night are told in a series of interconnected flashbacks: the two used to work together, under the guidance of the experienced Cutter (Caine), and were quite good friends, until a terrible tragedy put an end to that comradeship. As the years pass, the rivalry between them gets more and more dangerous, the two using their different qualities (Borden has better tricks, Angier more charisma) to become the best magician in Europe, in a conflict so devastating it might destroy everything they have.
It's not just the audacious storytelling that makes The Prestige similar to Memento. The two films also share the key theme: obsession. Leonard Shelby, the disturbed protagonist of Memento, insisted on tracking down the man who killed his wife, even though he knew he probably wouldn't succeed because of his inability to form new memories. The same thing happens to Angier and Borden: they're so obsessed with winning the duel they don't even care about the people surrounding them or what actually made them enemies in the first place. Around these layered, mysterious and intriguing characters Nolan constructs a riveting picture with stunning attention to detail: like his protagonists, the director fools the audience while laying out the clues that will lead to the shocking final revelation, a mind-blowing climax which adds poignancy to Cutter's instantly memorable line "You want to be fooled...".
In his intent, Nolan is impeccably helped by his cast, each of the actors, including Scarlett Johansson as both magicians'assistant/mistress and David Bowie as the eccentric scientist Nikola Tesla, adding shades of darkness and ambiguity. Bale and Caine, working with the director for the second consecutive time, are superb, playing interesting variations of their Batman Begins roles (tormented, lonely leading man and wise, caring mentor/father figure respectively) and raising expectations for said movie's sequel, and Jackman is easily their match, successfully developing the emotional maturity he began to show in X2 and delivering his finest performance to date. The real star, however, remains Nolan, who consistently pulls the right strings in the right moment, thus ensuring The Prestige is one of the absolutely best films of 2006, not to mention (possibly) his best achievement so far.