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The film is never less than engaging, though considering that the title The Prestige refers to the moment in a magic act that gives it its "wow" factor, it's kind of a shame that the ultimate "reveal" in the movie is a little too tricky for its own good.
It's quite a movie -- atmospheric, obsessive, almost satanic.
Jackman and Bale give standout performances as rivals whose mutual obsession destroys all sense of perspective and ruins lives.
The film is lavishly mounted, set-wise, costume-wise, makeup-wise and special-effects-wise. But the magicians themselves are cold and devious, and the chill permeates the whole film.
It doesn't want to explore epistemological questions about the nature of perception and memory; it just wants to mess with our heads. And as a wily, slightly sadistic chess game of a movie, it succeeds quite nicely.
The Prestige is a trick box with too many false bottoms.
Until an inexplicably awful revelation at the end, The Prestige is a taut, exciting portrait of obsession and the dark competitive spirit of professional magicians.
Although the slowish pacing early on over-indicates how both magicians' marquee misdirection (a disappearing act) will be achieved, The Prestige still manages a neat trick of its own.
Show me a director better suited for a movie about magic than Christopher Nolan and I'll show you... a magician?
Rival magicians battle in smart, dark period tale.
"The Prestige" is a cinematic trick, nothing more, and the deadpan seriousness is part of the effect, and not an end in itself.
In a movie about people who make their livings on misdirection, The Prestige utterly forgets to employ its own.
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Nolan balances Hollywood and indie sensibilities pulling off a film that is smart, complicated and carries a big look.
As the magicians attempt various versions of "The Transported Man," you can't help but feel transported yourself to a time when magic was the big entertainment.
As is his want, Mr. Nolan jumps between time periods and voice-overs with reckless abandon. The movie's real trick is that it all somehow manages to congeal.
You wouldn't have guessed it from The Prestige's marketing, but this movie about rival Victorian magicians is actually a science fiction film . . .
An example of old-fashioned storytelling, the kind of magical movie that could have been made fifty years ago and, consequently, will still be watched fifty years from now.
An interesting if not entirely satisfactory theatrical interpretation of magical rivalries.
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