The Prestige (2006) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Christopher Nolan

Starring:  Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, David Bowie, Andy Serkis, Piper Perabo

The Prestige is the story of two rival magicians' escalating, dangerous game of one-upmanship which has terrible residual effects on their loved ones and themselves.     They are not so much concerned about the collateral damage as they are about finding the secrets to each other's tricks.     The one that truly has Robert Angier (Jackman) stumped is Alfred Borden's (Bale) Transporting Man illusion, or is it one?    Angier can not fathom how Alfred can enter a device no deeper than a picture frame and reappear somewhere else in the theater instantaneously.      His obsession leads him to Colorado to seek out Nikola Tesla (Bowie), who may hold the secret to the device and may or may not have designed it for Borden already.   

Make no mistake.    Both Angier and Borden are selfish, obsessed, and myopic in their quest to become the most famous magician in Victorian London.     They have tunnel vision which eschews ordinary decency to others.     We could almost pity them if their rivalry did not turn deadly.     As the film opens, both are apprentices under the tutelage of a veteran stage magician.     They act as volunteers from the audience to assist in a Houdini-like act in which Angier's wife (Perabo) is tied up and immersed in a tank of water.    She normally frees herself before drowning, but one night Alfred inexplicably ties her too tight and she drowns.     Angier and Borden become enemies right then and there as Borden can not explain why or if he tied the rope too tight.    

Time passes.    Borden's act becomes the most famous in London, while Angier's career sinks.    The Transporting Man illusion fuels nightly sellouts, while Angier tries any means necessary to determine how the trick is pulled off.     Is it even a trick?     Angier hires an assistant (Johansson), whose job is to spy on Borden and gain access to any information he may have.     Her involvement only muddies the waters further.

Both Borden and Angier utilize the services of veteran stage manager John Cutter (Caine), who finds himself in the middle of their feud and doesn't have the stomach for it.    "Obsession is a younger man's game," he tells Angier.     I enjoyed Caine immensely (I rarely don't) here as someone who spent his whole life around the magic business and knows it in his bones.     He also knows the game between Alfred and Angier will lead to a tragic finish.    

I approach this review as a magician would.     I don't want to reveal secrets.     There are many.    Events and whole identities seem to be one thing, but truly another.     The women in Angier and Borden's lives are sad pawns.     Alfred's wife (Hall) can not understand why Alfred seemingly loves her intently one day and is cold and distant the next.     "You love me today," she says on Alfred's good days.    Soon, she finds this duality a living hell.     Both men make their women's lives miserable, which is of little consequence to them.

It takes nerve to play unsympathetic people like Angier and Borden.     Bale has played insufferable creeps before (American Psycho).     His Borden is not without his own secrets, which seem extreme in retrospect, but maybe fits right in with his pathology.      Jackman's Angier seems more refined of the two men and indeed has reason to be so, but he no less obsessive nor destructive.     What he does when he discovers the payoff to Tesla's machine represents his cold tunnel vision.   

Director Nolan is a master of noir.    Memento, Insomnia, and the Dark Knight trilogy are all great films which explore dark, tortured characters.     These are not fun people to watch, but are no less fascinating.     They are almost to be pitied.    Almost.