Christopher Nolan returns to the big screen with another tale about a man and the blinding obsession that dictates every aspect of his life.  The Prestige doesn’t unfold in reverse order, and has nothing to do with either a caped crusader or a Norwegian remake, but the overall theme is still the same: Chill out and get a fricking hobby, otherwise you’ll venture into some pretty dark and dangerous places, where someone will be prone to take advantage of your one-track mind.

The film’s title, or rather its description, both sets up and practically taunts viewers with a deadly accurate description of what will follow for the following 131 minutes.  The Prestige is about a pair of magicians, with the eponymous moniker representing the third act of a show-stopping trick (following “the Pledge,” and, “the Turn”), where the twists and turns will keep you from noticing slight-of-hand switcheroos and the like.  Thanks to this tip, astute viewers will be able to see through most of these shenanigans, which, in a way, kind of defeats the purpose of the clever set-up.  It’s not quite as bad as, say, a story about a writer who has trouble coming up with an ending for his novel in a film that has a laughably lame final act (see Secret Window).  But the irony must be addressed.

Likely to be compared to last month’s The Illusionist, which also dealt with a Victorian-era magician in Europe, The Prestige shows the career beginnings of both Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) as they work as assistants to the same stage performer.  One night, a trick goes wrong, taking the life of another assistant (Piper Perabo) and launching Angier’s fixation on exacting revenge on Borden because of a gaffe he committed during the stunt.  The two men spend what appears to be years attempting to sabotage the tricks and performances of their counterpart.  They even take turns employing/screwing the same stage assistant (Scarlett Johansson) in the hopes she’ll be able to give them an upper hand in their dangerous game of one-upmanship (why Angier and Borden don’t just have sex and get it over with is beyond me).  Did I mention David Bowie plays Nikola Tesla, who is a pretty big character as The Prestige slogs through its finale?

Yeah, it gets a little messy, though Bowie delivers the best performance of the picture, and the Tesla-Edison rivalry nicely underscores the discord between our two leads.  The wheels don’t come completely off, but it takes us back to the irony of a story about a third act that begins to come undone in its own third act.  There’s also the little problem of Angier and Borden not being very likable, leaving viewers with the unenviable task of trying to pick one of these guys to get behind when, in fact, there is no correct decision to be made.

All of this third act nitpicking probably makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy The Prestige, and that’s not the case.  It’s a good movie, but it’s also frustrating because the payoff falls a little flat.  With a bevy of his off-camera talent returning from Batman Begins, Nolan has crafted another dark, textured look at men undone by their obsession for revenge.  It would be nice to see a change of direction for his next offering, but he’s in the process of finalizing a Batman sequel.

2:11 – for violence and disturbing images