The Prestige (PG-13, 2006)

THE PRESTIGE focuses on the competition between magicians Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) in turn-of-the-20th-century London. While cockney-accented Alfred is blunt and focused only on his art, Robert is a lesser magician but a more prodigious, ambitious showman. Though they initially work together, an on-stage accident leads to conflict and a battle of one-upsmanship for revenge. They compete over losses, tricks, and audiences, each reading the other's stolen journal to decipher his rival's meanings and mechanics. Robert goes so far as to name his version of "The Transported Man" (Alfred's crowd-pleasing finale) "The New Transported Man"; Alfred renames his show "The Original Transported Man." As the mechanical possibilities for tricks expand and shift, the men are increasingly hard-pressed to keep up. As they seek out more elaborate and astounding illusions, the magicians also begin to imagine intersections between science and art, performance and truth. Alfred's marriage begins to suffer and he takes a lover, Robert's former assistant Olivia (Scarlett Johansson). The men's contest turns increasingly aggressive, with each growing more isolated and spiteful. The magicians chase after control of their illusions, performances that fool audiences who want to be fooled. They believe that their competition depends on knowing each other's secrets, on not being fooled. But they are ever fooled, as each believes he is the more original prestidigitator. Ironically, this makes them, as Olivia observes angrily, "perfect for each other."

"Are you watching closely?" With this question, THE PRESTIGE (based on the novel by Christopher Priest) invites viewers to participate -- or at least to be aware of their participation -- in its storytelling. A smart, intriguing tale of deceit and obsession, Christopher Nolan's movie offers a series of tricks as connected pleasures; but they have less to do with plot twists (which are sometimes obvious) than details of character and performance.