Ambition up their sleeves

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"Every magic trick consists of three parts or acts," explains Cutter (Sir Michael Caine) at the start of "The Prestige."

The first is the pledge: "The magician shows you something ordinary, but of course, it probably isn't." Next is the turn: "The magician makes his ordinary something do something extraordinary." But most important is the prestige: "This is the part with the twists and turns ... and you see something shocking you've never seen before."

The same could be said of a Christopher Nolan film.

The English filmmaker is best known for 2000's "Memento," one of the most clever movies of the past decade. Mr. Nolan's backward-moving film didn't just play with our expectations about time; its novel narrative had an unreliable narrator who couldn't even rely on himself.

"The Prestige," which takes place in turn-of-the-century London, is very different from "Memento" -- Mr. Nolan, who also made "Batman Begins" and "Insomnia," has resisted repeating himself. However, the novel by Christopher Priest, from which Mr. Nolan and his brother Jonathan Nolan adapted the screenplay for "The Prestige," provides fertile material for the director to explore further how film can play with our narrative expectations as much as the novel does.

Cutter, played with sly finesse by Mr. Caine, is an ingeneur, someone who creates the magic tricks the showmen use. His protege is Robert Angier ("X-Men's" Hugh Jackman, transitioning easily from an action star with this arresting performance), an upper-class illusionist with a lot of style. He doesn't have his own show yet. Neither does his colleague, Alfred Borden (the intense Christian Bale of "Batman Begins").

The competition between the two is friendly until a trick involving Angier's wife ("Coyote Ugly's" Piper Perabo, wearing more clothing here) goes tragically awry. It sparks one of the most single-minded rivalries on film. As the movie opens, Borden is on trial for killing Angier. The film uses flashbacks -- each magician reading the other's diary at one point -- to explain how one-upmanship became an obsession for them both.

"You're a magician, not a wizard," Cutter tells Angier, discussing a trick. "You've got to get your hands dirty."

Both men do. Just how dirty they get will astound audiences, like the best magic tricks do.

"The Prestige" is a period piece, a Hitchcockian thriller and a science-fiction picture rolled into one. The look of the film is impeccable; from Angier's sumptuous surroundings to Borden's working-class world, "The Prestige" takes place in a somewhat Dickensian London. As the rivalry between Angier and Borden becomes more intense, so does the suspense.