Nolan's first misstep? Maybe.

Rating: 6/10 (6 December 2018)

This film is too smart, or perhaps the word should be convoluted, for its own good. Nolan has crafted a movie about obsession and revenge under the guise of magic but the execution stalls in many areas. Watching The Prestige is like observing a magic act where the magician's sleight-of-hand isn't deft enough. The trick almost works, but not quite... With its mechanical twists and turns and lack of heart, the movie often resembles Sleuth in superficial ways, except The Prestige resorts to cheating while Sleuth relied on cunning and guile. As is too often the case with narratives that try to be oblique to the end, the film's climax is strangely predictable. The Prestige goes to a great deal of trouble - including a triple time-line - to protect secrets that aren't all that surprising or hard to guess. The acting by the leads- Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale is top notch but that should be a given.