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Movie Reviews, & Film Industry Commentary
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2006 – PG-13 – 130 min.
Director: Christopher Nolan
Primary Cast: Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansen, David Bowie, Andy Serkis
Stars **** (of 5)
Popcorn *** (of 5)
Film Type(s): Drama, Competition, One-Upsmanship, Victorian
Synopsis: . Two Victorian era magicians compete in a game of one-upsmanship with one another in often bitter and bloody ways in this film. One, Borden (Bale), is a natural who believes the trick is all. The other, Angier aka. The Great Danton (Jackman), is a student of magic whose wife died tragically when then-fellow assistant Borden may (or may not) have caused a trick to go wrong. Their self-involved feud pulls in others in their lives, including an assistant that falls in love with both of them (Johansen), an inventor for magicians that cautions them (Caine), and an inventor with unorthodox uses for electricity (Bowie). Bringing in much of the same crew that worked with him on Batman Begins, Director Nolan also Co-Scripted with his brother Jonathan from Christopher Priest’s book of the same title.
Review: Are you watching closely? From the people that brought you the movie Batman Begins comes an absorbing film about two rival magicians in turn of the century England that are out for blood, no matter who gets in the way or hurt. The title of the film refers to the third part of a magic trick, where the trick ends when something impossible is brought back for the end. The film’s plot interweaves flashbacks with one magician (Bale) in prison for the other’s murder and the other magician (Jackman) in Colorado Springs, seeking out a Belgian inventor with strange ideas for electricity (a mustached David Bowie) to make a device for him. These times are deliberately inter-cut so that you, the viewer of this film, can keep track of the events in the film, but are not aware until too late of which took place before the other, being both ‘Divided and Contradictory’ as one character puts it. Clues are interspersed throughout the film leading up to its “Twilight-Zone”-like ending to the movie. The acting in this film is first rate, Caine and Bale in particular turning in fantastic performances that have a number of nuances that will only be apparent with additional (and worthwhile) viewings. The costumes and Art Direction are also superb, giving a real sense of time and space without taking you out of the film’s events. Fans of Caine’s 1972 film Sleuth and similar films will thoroughly enjoy this movie. Brothers Christopher and Jonathan Nolan adapted this film from Christopher Priest’s generation spanning book of the same name.
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