"The Prestige"
Directed by: Christopher
Nolan
Starring: Hugh Jackman,
Christian Bale, Michael Caine,
Scarlett Johansson and Piper
Perabo
Rated: PG-13 (for brief vio-
lence)

Running time: 127 minutes
Best suited for: conjurers and
magic fans, period piece fans
Least suited for: The one-
magic-flick-a-year crowd

"Every great magic trick consists of three acts," Cutter (Michael Caine) tells us early in

"The Prestige." "The first act is called 'The Pledge.' The magician shows you something ordinary, but of course it probably isn't. The second act is called 'The Turn.' The magician makes this ordinary something do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret-but you won't find it. That's why there's a third act, called 'The Prestige.' This is the part with the twists and turns . . . where you'll see something that you've never seen before."

"The Prestige" gives us its best shot at delivering that magical third act. You know from the outset the film's out to fool you, and a few times my wife and I had those furious back-and-forth whisper sessions: "This is what's gonna happen. No, this is what's gonna happen." I like films of that nature, daring to make you guess. And the outcome's pretty nifty too, although "The Prestige" does venture somewhat into the realm of sci-fi to deliver the goods.

Set in turnofthecentury London, the film follows the careers of two rival magicians. Hugh Jackman plays Robert Angier. Christian Bale is Alfred Borden. Angier and Borden start out as jovial apprentices eager to learn the tricks of the trade, always on the lookout for magic's Holy Grail- that one magnificent trick that's more than simply gifted misdirection, but actual magic.

But when Angier holds Borden responsible for the death of Angier's wife, a magician's assistant, their friendship ends and they begin a long and furious battle, both professionally and personally. Michael Caine does an admirable job as Cutter, Angier's ingénieur (an inventor of tricks), who realizes that both men may be on a collision course with a destiny neither is prepared for.

"The Prestige" is a film as much about obsession as it is about magic. It's a dark film, at times gothic, where the misty gray areas between magic and deceit blur beyond recognition.

As in "The Illusionist" earlier this year, one can feel the on-screen presence of society on the precipice of cataclysmic change-a world filled with impressive mechanical contraptions and untamed electrical arcs that crackle between giant electrodes. It is a change brewing with unbridled fear.

The film is very well done in that regard, a true period piece ably setting the stage for Angier and Borden, who come dangerously close to meddling with godlike power. And the film is at its best when the two are pitted face to face, challenging or goading each other toward new feats of magic, new levels of tension.

I did find a few misdirected plot attempts. For instance, Olivia (Scarlett Johansson) is Angier's stage assistant, secretly in love with him, but she turns shrewish double-crosser when he sends her to spy on Alfred, and then she kind of disappears (abracadabra!) for the rest of the film.

Women don't fare particularly well in "The Prestige;" it would seem that the mortality rate for magicians' wives is staggeringly high.

And the notion that Thomas Edison had goon squads seems a little far-fetched (although David Bowie has a plum role as Edison's supposed nemesis, the physicist/inventor Nikola Tesla).

And if you're wondering if "The Prestige" is anything like "The Illusionist," the answer is a resounding, "Umm." The films aren't exactly parallel, but they're not totally dissimilar either.

Did you ever get the feeling that every once in awhile there's some poor screenplay bouncing around Hollywood slush piles, studios winking and passing on the project and then whispering to their own people, "Let's make this one ourselves-but change it around a bit."

There was "Dante's Peak"/"Volcano" (1997), "Deep Impact"/"Armageddon" (1998), a couple of Truman Capote bios within a year and "The Prestige" following on the heels of "The Illusionist." And while I'm sure Hollywood's above that sort of slushpile diving, I suspect audiences may like a little lag time between their cinematic similitudes.

In a nutshell: "The Prestige" conjures up a pretty tricky, mostly credible tale of obsession and intrigue between two magicians, once friends, who become locked in a bitter race to outperform one another by discovering "real" magic.