The Prestige is what the esteemed film critic Roger Ebert calls a Jerk Around Movie. To quote the Rog-man from his review of the modern classic Basic "what it does is jerk you around. It sets up a situation and then does a bait and switch. You never know which walnut the truth is under. You invest your trust and are betrayed."
I am not a big fan of movies like this, because they tend to be entirely about plot and nothing else. I know I am in the minority on this. Lots of Jerk Around Movies are really popular- The Sting and The Usual Suspects are two that I can think of, as is, to an extent, The Departed. But I want a movie to be about more than a clever plotline. I want a film about characters I like or ideas I find interesting. The Prestige comes close, mainly due to some compelling lead performances from Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, but ultimatley misses the mark.
The premise sounds like a lot of fun- two magicians try to outwit and out suceed each other. Each has a special talent- Borden (Bale) is the better magician technically, while Angier (Jackman) is the superior showman. Although the two initially work together, Angier become obssessed with defeating his rival when his girlfriend is accidently(?) drowned during a trick. The two become more and more obsessed with outshowing the other, and Angeir seeks the help of inventor Nikoli Tesla (David Bowie) to copy a trick that Boren developes that is seemingly impossible.
Like all of Nolan's work, The Prestige is told out of chronological sequence, but the movie is surprisinlgy easy to follow and it moderatley fun while watching it. But the film's ending is deeply flawed, not so much because it relies on a poor plot twist but because it relies on a twist of any kind. Nothing is really changed when it is revealed what is going on- because the movie was never about anything at all. The characters don't have much to them beyond their obsession, and there is no interesting statement about showmanship or magic, or anything of the sort. This is not so much a bad film, as a totally pointless one. It's sort like eating bad candy- it's not too bad while your doing it, but you regret it afterwards, and wish you could get the calories back.
The Prestige (2006)