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Two young, passionate magicians, Robert Angier (Jackman), a charismatic showman, and Alfred Borden (Bale), a gifted illusionist, are friends and partners until one fateful night when their biggest trick goes terribly wrong. Now the bitterest of enemies, they will stop at nothing to learn each other's secrets. As their rivalry escalates into a total obsession full of deceit and sabotage, they risk everything to become the greatest magician of all time. But nothing is as it seems, so watch closely. (official distributor synopsis)

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novoten 

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English "Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back." Obsession with anything can lead anyone to ruin, but what if the inevitable and dark outcome of your efforts is neither death nor salvation? I don't like self-serving twists, I don't like reveals sucked out of the fingers, and I especially don't like the feeling when the creators try to cheaply outsmart me. But what if someone presents a few exhausting twists that don't tire you out and instead leave you wanting more? Now I understand why it took Christopher and Jonathan Nolan so long to develop this screenplay, because thinking through the story (even when it's based on a novel) to all its consequences must have taken a lot of effort. And observing the eternal feud between Borden and Angier is the pinnacle of viewer delight. I thank the creators that the perfect line "Are you watching closely?" is not an audiovisual question, but rather a thoughtful one. If it only depended on discovering a few images, the trick couldn't work a second time, but this way everything truly depends only on the storytellers. The viewer then remains helpless, like a prisoner locked in a water tank. ()

Spiker01 

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English Perfect trick - perfect movie! I was really looking forward to it. At first, I was intrigued by the star-studded cast (Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, or even Scarlett Johansson) and when I found out that it was directed by Nolan, I couldn't resist. I only saw the movie this year, so I can't judge how it was received back then, but I really liked it. The film jumps back and forth a lot, so it's quite confusing and you have to think about it. However, the unraveling of the plot is fantastic... 100% ()

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DaViD´82 

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English Luckily the Nolan brothers played about sufficiently with the screenplay, so the result isn’t just a set of illustrations for the original book, but a self-standing creation. Not all the changes from the book are for the best (for instance, setting the story in the present day and its almost horror feel would have looked good in the movie too), but as a whole it holds together well and works without having to have read the book. Nolan plays an intelligent game with the viewer, asking a lot of questions, but also offering some answers. In terms of directing, he handles the movie with his own inimitable style and uses a similar storytelling method that he tried out in his debut movie, Following. The only more serious shortcoming is the pretty annoying partial happy ending; they should have left the ending the same as in the book. ()

3DD!3 

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English Clever. Very clever. I much admire the storytelling method used by Nolan to present us the story of two illusionists who dedicated their whole lives to magic. Hats off to him, because to stick to the storyline while various time lines layer up on each other is a work of mastership. Both Bale and Jackman, who are responsible for making the main characters so convincing, made perfect work of their roles. But if the screenplay weren’t so cleverly written, The Prestige would have commanded much less prestige :). I love it when a picture plays tricks on you, and of everything I have ever seen and probably will ever see, I admire filmmakers playing games with the viewer the highest. That’s why I forgive Nolan for the so much criticized explanatory part (and in my opinion even that is delivered gracefully). He didn’t do it for himself, but for some people in the audience. People who don’t want to see tricks, but to discover the secret behind them. ()

J*A*S*M 

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English Christopher Nolan is slowly but surely becoming one of my favourite directors. The Prestige is sharing with Memento the position of his best film (at least for me). I like his more intimate thrillers a bit more than Batman. The actors are superb, with a Christian Bale a lot more convincing than in Batman Begins and The Dark Night. The script is awesome, packed with minor turns and impressive situations and scenes, and by the end it delivers an unexpected twist that, although not as brilliant as Memento’s, makes everything fall into place and make perfect sense. I hope Nolan will take a break from Batman so we can get again something smaller. ()

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