The Prestige

Although the film's stunning reveals make the audience realise it has been duped... there is a protagonist to empathise with each time.

It's quite a movie -- atmospheric, obsessive, almost satanic.

An example of old-fashioned storytelling, the kind of magical movie that could have been made fifty years ago and, consequently, will still be watched fifty years from now.

The who's-bilking-whom mind games make for compelling fun, but once the presto moment of The Prestige is revealed, you're left with nothing but shattered illusions.

Odd, but brilliantly so. It's a small film that feels big, a period drama that looks modern, defying comparison to anything but Nolan himself.

It's a very cool piece of filmmaking -- as it has to be, given the intellectual sleight-of-hand that lies at its heart. Yet it succeeds as both great entertainment and an absorbing rumination on the dangers of playing God.

Plus one of Jackman’s early conceits revealed what a good actor he can be, and we forget because of the body. He actually manages to seem like a different person and almost change the structure of his face in one early scene w

Nolan constructs a fascinating tale that twists and turns at every opportunity, although there is perhaps one twist too many in a slightly overbaked dénouement.

Nolan looks at how obsession can drive you beyond your limit and destroy everything, even when the simple answer is right in front of you. In the process, he … intentionally crafts an allegory of filmmaking itself.

In terms of building narratives on top of narratives, this one really cemented Nolan as one of cinema’s most cerebral storytellers.