The Prestige: A-

He's done it again....sort've. As the strikingly dazzling craftsman of warped visuals, Christopher Nolan is a director that knows how to make you believe. At this point his work is the one that I anticipate beyond anyone else's. Take into account all the elements he has with which to concoct a fabulous drama: two powerful, riveting stars in Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, an eclectic and talented supporting cast (Scarlett Johansson, Micheal Caine, and David Bowie as restrained genius Nikola Tesla), a pretzel-logic story of dueling magicians in 20th century London, and perhaps greatest of all, his brilliant and mesmerizing "Memento" movie-making style. That is to say he jumps around the time-space continuum as if it were his own private playroom and he does so with such reckless abandon that it'll leave you in a mixed state of vertigo and glee. Bourdin (Christian Bale) and Angier (Hugh Jackman) were apprentice stage magicians and partners once. However through one tragic event, one that takes the movie almost an eon to get to, they turned into murderous adversaries. The idea that professional illusionists would do one another in has been done before, Nolan isn't excusing his lack of innovation, but perhaps it has never been done more artfully. The movie starts with an apparent murder than leaps both backwards and forwards. In essence you start in the middle and work your way to the finish and the start simultaneously. Like I said, mesmerizing and sickening. Magicians are defined as people who use the simplest tricks to create the most elaborate lies. Bourdin, the moody illusionist doesn't get that, but flashy showman Angier does. In the end who is better? In the end who is true? As the movie works its way up with a playful carnality we begin to see everything as multi-sided: in a world of illusion what is actually real? Nolan answers that question by pulling off one of the most artfully clever film devices in years: he makes the whole thing dissapear.