Are you watching closely?

Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman light up the screen as two magicians battling to be No. 1. And they’re not exactly the nicest two men you’ll ever meet.

Set in the 1890s, Bale (Alfred Borden) and Jackman (Robert Angier) start off as two aspiring magicians who are plants to another magician. While not the best of friends, the two manage to get along and discuss the different techniques of a magician.

Then, one fateful day, Angier’s wife, who was the magician’s assistant, is killed when she is dropped into a water tank and can’t slip out of the knot that Borden had tied. So begins a feud that lasts an entire lifetime.

Fingers are lost, legs are broken and even lives are torn apart just so one magician can outdo the others. And there’s another twist in the story.

David Bowie.

Well, not David Bowie himself, but his portrayal of Nikola Tesla, the inventor who brought radical new ideas to the scientific community. When all the other ideas have run out, Angier turns to Tesla, believing Borden had also gone to the inventor for new ideas for magic tricks.

You’ll find yourself looking for a person to die throughout the entire movie, but it’s hard to find one. Michael Caine, in his role as Cutter, the man who invents new magic tricks, is probably the closest thing to a ‘hero’ this movie has. Both men are cutthroats, and will stop at nothing to come out on top, even at the risk of their own lives, and the lives of their families. While I found myself siding more with Angier----after all, having your wife killed can be a pretty strong motivator---I ended up wondering which of the two men were worse in the long run. For example, Angier sends his assitant Olivia (Scarlett Johansson), who seems to have fallen in love with Angier, to spy on Borden. She then falls in love with Borden, prompting him to have an affair. Borden then ruins Angier’s version of The Transported Man, Borden’s “masterpiece” of a trick, and causes him to permanently have a limp. Then Angier kidnaps Borden’s assitant and buries him alive, prompting Borden to give up the secret of his notebook so that Angier can have all of his tricks.

Believing Borden had acquired a machine from Nikola Tesla, Angier heads to America to seek out Tesla and get a machine of his own. Meanwhile, Borden’s wife Sara disovers his affair with Olivia. And when Borden tells her that he doesn’t love her (the point at which I believe nearly every woman in the audience was ready to kill him), she goes and hangs herself.

Angier eventually gets his machine and returns to England, ready to shock the world, and to draw out Borden, with his latest trick, the new version of The Transported Man. This ends up being the greatest magic trick of all because, well, there is no magic! No illusion, no slight-of-hand. It’s all science, and it ends up being the world’s first cloning machine! But shhh, you didn’t hear that from me. You know how these magicians are with their techniques. They’d rather die than hand them over, which also comes to play later in the movie.

All in all, the movie was well done. It was an original plot that left you guessing right up until then end, and you still found yourself scratching your head when it was all over. However, this is not a kid-friendly magic show. The movie is very dark, and you’ll find yourself on more than one occasion wanting to seriously hurt one of the characters on screen. However, it was interesting to see how magicians work behind the scenes. And these were not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill magicians. Set at the turn of the century, these guys were given the same treatment as modern-day rock stars. Shows are sold out and people are willing to pay a good chunk of money to see these guys perform.

It was a well-deserved break from Bale and Jackman’s roles in comic book movies. While they both did outstanding jobs in Batman Begins and X-Men, it was interesting to see them in darker, original roles.

The movie does have a few interesting plot twists at the end that make up for whatever you may think this movie lacks. This keeps you glued to your seat---and your jaw hanging open---even after the movie is over. It might be a bit confusing for some. I had to have it rehashed once or twice before I finally got the entire scope of what had happened. But it’s a movie well-worth seeing, especially if you want to see something other than a patriotic movie about a photograph.

So watch closely, and you just might learn a trick or two yourself. But remember, a good magician never gives up his secrets.