I wasn't quite sure how to write this review. I thought that the movie is brilliant but you see, I don't quite like the ending. The idea suggested in the end was too mind-boggling to grasp that somehow, I felt cheated because I could never have seen it coming. This, despite that the ending was hinted before it was revealed but the concept was just too fantastic that I rejected the notion, and looked forward to other more logical explanation. This is akin to the experience I went through when I read Alan Moore's "The Watchmen".
Therefore, I found it difficult to write this review without revealing the ending because without it, I would not be able to describe how I feel. Yet, I do not wish to spoil the ending for anyone who had not watch it yet.
Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale played two magicians who started off as friends but ended up as enemies, whose rivalry grew deadlier with time. Jackman's Angier is more a showman and less a magician, and strictly abided by his principle of not getting his hands dirty, like killing little animal for the sake of performance. Bale's Borden, on the other hand, a superior magician albeit with poorer showmanship, believes that sacrifice must be made and literally lived his trick in his everyday lives, even keeping the secret of his tricks from his beloved wife.
When the movie begins, Angier drowned to death in a magic trick gone wrong. Being present at the crime scene, Borden was eventually convicted for his murder. The story then unfolded through a series of flashback on how they both began their carrer as magicians and how they became the enemies that they were, leading subsequently, to the murder of Angier. Of course, like the magic tricks that are the theme of this movie, nothing is as it seems. Watch this and be astonished, not unlike watching magic itself.
I used the word earlier and I will use it again. Mind- boggling. Do not watch this when you're having a headache.
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