MOVIE REVIEW
'The Prestige' is an imitation of life
by KEN BARTOLOTTA Reporter

Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman are two magicians who blur the thin line between illusion and reality in the film "The Prestige."

Where does art end and life begin?

This question seems to be the center premise of director Christopher Nolan's new film "The Prestige," a movie that uses magic as a vehicle to explore the often tumultuous lives of entertainers and what they go through to keep the audience tuned in.

It's really a great film, a two-and-a-half-hour battle of one-upmanship between Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. While it sells itself as a piece about magic, "The Prestige" is so much more.

Throughout the movie, in their attempts to remain relevant and provide the best act around, the two men sacrifice lives, destroy families and hold no cow sacred in order to top the other.

The two magicians, friends turned rivals, represent the shock and awe of show business, the yin and yang of philosophies on how to get a rise out of their fans.

While Bale's Alfred Borden attempts to keep them clapping through shock and awe, putting life and limb on the line Jackman's Rupert Angier instead uses the obligatory bells and whistles of shiny and new as his game, always willing to dress up the act in the name of show business.

It's these very different approaches that come to define the entertainers throughout the story, which soon becomes a downward spiral of obsession and backhanded acts of indecency that ultimately leave every character in this movie scarred in some way or another.

It's Bale who seems to steal the show here, turning in his best performance to date, cockney accent and all. He conquers his role, stumbling back and forth between good-hearted entertainer and shrewd businessman. But like his acting, he never once sells out that which matters most: the tr ic k.

Serving as the balance in this life-shattering rivalry is Michael Caine's character (Cutter), an inventor of magic props who

believes that the best trick is one that always leaves the audience guessing.

In the end, the movie does leave the audience with an inkling to question, to pontificate on the reality of the movie and ultimately where the thin line between illusion and reality is drawn. (Rated PG-13)

e-mail: kenb@beenews.com