BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: Is there a secret you would kill to know? In this electrifying, suspense-packed thriller from director Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, Momento), Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play magicians whose cutthroat attempts to best each other plunge them into deadly deceptions. Scarlett Johansson also stars as the stage assistant who's both a pawn and player in their rivalry. A brilliant supporting cast (including Michael Caine and David Bowie). An ingenious story. An outstanding payoff. Once you see The Prestige, you'll want to see it again. Watch closely.

FILM REVIEW: Much of the nature of film is illusion; filmmakers often conjure up great drama and misdirection to move audiences through the story journey that they wish to take them on. "The Prestige" is a movie that is based on a practitioner that also utilises many of the same techniques, the magician. Popular in the Victorian era, magicians would wow audiences with misdirection and sleight of hand to make the unbelievable believable. Upon reviewing this latest film from director Christopher Nolan, I would have to say that he has accomplished the exact same feat. "The Prestige" is a complicated, thrilling story of two magicians who want to out-do each other's magic tracks to be best, but the plot itself is pulling a magic trick of its own. No, there isn't a traditional twist ending as such, but a revelation of how Christian Bale's character Alfred Borden pulls the ultimate magic trick, not just on his rival Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) but on us as the audience watching this incredible story. It's a great film, and may appear convulted with its jumping back and forth from the past and the present, but by the end, it's a magic trick well worth seeing.

Robert Angier and Alfred Borden are two wannabe magicians working for illusion engineer Cutter (Michael Caine) at the outset of the story. They are friends, but already Borden's desire to make better, original magic tricks leads to some friction, but ultimately, it's when Borden ties the wrong knot on Angier's wife's hands during a magic trick which subsequently leads to her death that the two men become bitter rivals, with Angier doing whatever it takes to best Borden. The trouble really starts when Borden creates the best magic trick the world has ever seen, The Transported Man, where he seems to enter one door and appear out of another on the opposite side of the stage in the blink of an eye. Cutter suspects Borden is using a double, but Angier sees no evidence of it. As a result, Angier seeks out Tesla, one of the 20th century's most brilliant and reclusive physicists who creates a machine capable of teleporting a man from one place to another instantly. However, the machine has one interesting side-effect; in addition to transporting that person from one place to another, it leaves the original person in the machine behind, in effect making a duplicate person. Unable to resolve this issue, Angier uses the machine to create the illusion of transporting elsewhere, while killing off the duplicate in the act by drowning him in a water tank under the stage. When Borden sneaks in under the stage to figure out how he does it, he stumbles across the water tank but is unsuccessful in breaking Angier out of the tank before he dies. Borden is caught by Cutter who is actually unaware of what Angier has done, and Borden is sentenced to death. However, in the biggest trick of all, it turns out Borden did use a double, his twin brother, who both decided to live the life of Borden and while one is getting hanged, the other hunts down Angier (who is still alive but in hiding) and exacts his revenge.

The plot of "The Prestige" is simple, but it's told in a complicated fashion. Utlising techniques Nolan has used in previous films of not presenting a linear plot-line, the film at first criss-crosses between the present with Borden on death row and the past with Angier trying to figure out the secret behind Borden's magic trick. The two plot lines are linked together by both magicians reading each other's diaries; at first it's a little confusing to follow but as the film moves along it becomes more clear, particularly when both magicians deceive each other, even when both plot lines are out of synch (that may sound odd but watch the film and you'll get what I'm talking about). Ultimately the two men meet face to face again in the present in a very clever ending, that's also a little creepy as it's set in the warehouse where Angier stored all his dead duplicates from The Transported Man magic act.

Hugh Jackman by and large carries most of the story and does an exceptional job as the obsessed magician who wants to negate any lingering doubts that he is a true magician but is thwarted at every attempt to do so by Borden. Christian Bale plays a more engimatic, but no less tricky magician in Borden, offerring a more zen-like at times, crazy in others performance that also features the ultimate obsession driving his character. Michael Caine is always good, playing the illusion engineer Cutter who ultimately moves his loyalties between the two men, particularly in the end when he discovers that Angier effectively put Borden on death row and had no intention of doing anything about it. Scarlett Johansson is also good in her supporting role as the assistant who works for both magicians, who is also playing games with each of them to get what she wants.

Christopher Nolan has made some intriguing films that have defied genre and film conventions, but with The Prestige he seems to have taken it up a notch or two, presenting a story that goes to the heart of what film is all about. He seems very aware of the power of illusion and how it plays a part in film, and as such, the structure of the film ultimate resembles a magic act itself. It's very clever, well shot, well performed and just plain well done (but make sure you bring your thinking cap, this isn't escapist fare designed to whittle away a few hours of your life). There's even room for some outstanding visuals, particularly with Tesla's transporting machine which is a spooky, yet glorious looking invention, especially with the ripples of alternating current emanating from its various wires and boxes.

"The Prestige" is a thrilling, intelligent film that will keep you hooked until the end.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: The transfer of this DVD is quite spectacular. The image is crystal clear, sharp and vibrant, with the colours particularly outstanding, especially in the darker, night sequences not showing any sort of noticeable evidence of mpeg artefacting. The soundtrack is outstanding; the sequences where the 'machine' is turned on and surges of alternating current flash across the screen they also erupt through the surround sound system which is impressive. Dialogue sounds great. Overall, a spectacular transfer.

EXTRAS REVIEW: There are only a handful of extras on this disc but what they are quite worthwhile. There is a five part documentary called "The Director's Handbook" which chronicles the journey director Christopher Nolan took to get the film made. Much time is spent on the idea of magic and magicians, as well as 'Tesla', the man responsible for a number of important discoveries of the 20th Century but wasn't taken seriously in his day (and of course is a featured character in the film). This documentary is quite good and makes for a nice complement to the main feature. There are also a number of production still and artwork, a theatrical trailer, as well as subtitles (Arabic, English, English for the hearing impaired). Overall, a worthwhile, but small collection of extras.

BOTTOM LINE: Worth having in the collection.