The Prestige, Rival magicians battle in smart, dark period tale.

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- featured Alfred is blunt and concentrated only on his art, Robert is a lower magician but a more fabulous, ambitious showman. Though they originally work together, an on- stage accident leads to conflict and a battle of one- upsmanship for vengeance. They contend over losses, tricks, and cult, each reading the other’s stolen journal to decrypt his rival’s meanings and mechanics.

Robert goes so far as to name his interpretation of” The Transported Man”( Alfred’s crowd- pleasing homestretch)” The New Transported Man”; Alfred renames his show” The Original Transported Man.” As the mechanical possibilities for tricks expand and shift, the men are decreasingly hard- pressed to keep up.

As they seek out more elaborate and astounding visions, the magicians also begin to imagine corners between wisdom and art, performance and verity. Alfred’s marriage begins to suffer and he takes a nut, Robert’s former adjunct Olivia( Scarlett Johansson).

The men’s contest turns decreasingly aggressive, with each growing more isolated and hateful. The magicians chase after control of their visions, performances that wisecrack cult who want to be wisecracked. They believe that their competition depends on knowing each other’s secrets, on not being wisecracked.

But they’re ever wisecracked, as each believes he’s the more original conjurer . Ironically, this makes them, as Olivia observes angrily,” perfect for each other.”

 

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