Director Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, Memento) reunites with Christian Bale (Batman Begins, The Machinist), Michael Caine (again Batman Begins!, Sleuth (1972 and 2007 version!)) and brings along another actor and actress who star in a comic book film in Hugh Jackman (Wolverine in the X-Men series) as well as Scarlett Johansson ( Lost in Translation, The Spirit). Jonathon Nolan, brother to the director, helped Christopher adapt the 1995 award winning novel by Christopher Priest of the same name.
Robert Angier (Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Bale) are assistants to a magician, both are aspiring to be magicians themselves but when a death destroys their friendship a rivalry is born. Becoming so obsessed with each other they jeopardize everything and everyone they hold dear to upstage the other.I am having a really tough time writing this review. Not to say I didn’t enjoy the movie but something felt off. I am not sure if it was because I was lost at the beginning of the film, which could have been the director’s prerogative, but felt like I missed something entirely. It seemed that Nolan was making the film more complicated than it really needed to be.
The acting was concrete from top to bottom, the supporting actors really helped bring along the sense of urgency between the two rivals. Bale and Jackman are the centerpieces but Caine is fantastic like always. As a surprise, David Bowie really does a nice job in the film, holding his own up against the rest of the great crew.
The theme for this movie was all over the place. Secrecy, obsession, science, revenge, and rivalry are all placed nicely up your sleeve but you can not just take one out at a time but they all to fall out at once making a mess you aren’t sure you understand. A very lifeless score was played throughout the film and the only good thing about it was that it is just slight background noise that it is easy to ignore.
I think this film will really benefit from a second viewing, picking out some of the plot twists that are surely hinted at before they happen, and when I get around to that I may have to just write another review! Learning how some of the magic is done was pretty neat and any time a trick was being explained I was fascinated. The movie was fun at times, tedious at others, strong acting really helps this film and some really beautiful cinematography makes it worth the watch.
3 out of 5
Colin Enquist
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