The prestige, as Michael Caine's seen-it-all-before trickster explains, is the final part of a magician's act.

After the pledge (the set up), the turn, (the tricky bit) comes the moment when the audience are dumbfounded by an unforeseen twist that turns the trick into something completely different.

Taking this structure and applying it to a movie is exactly what you might expect from Christopher Nolan, particularly given that it works even better by having three different timelines entwined.

It takes some getting used to, but the story finds Bale's Alfred Borden reading Robert Angier's journal, which in itself flashes back as Angier reads Borden's.

Initially friends and colleagues, Borden and Angier become mortal enemies after an on-stage accident leads to the death of another entertainer.

In the aftermath, Angier teams up with Michael Caine's Cutter to create a stage show that's visually impressive but ultimately vacuous, while Borden remains, as Cutter remarks, "a great magician but a horrible showman."

Things change when Borden comes up with possibly the best magic trick ever conceived and their regular acts of one-upmanship become increasingly deadly.

As in a magic show, how much one will enjoy the movie is relative to whether or not the viewer falls for, and appreciates, the director's trickery.

It is unfortunate for Nolan that, as a filmmaker, he doesn't have the luxury of keeping his secrets to himself. Yet it only pushes him into creating a magic trick that is just as enjoyable on second viewing - once you know how it was done.

The well crafted backdrops of the dark and moody period setting are almost shunned by Nolan, whose camera rarely strays from his actors, all of which provide engaging performances.

Bale's rough turn as Borden is complemented by the more sophisticated performance required of Jackman. Their characters may fight and bicker, but the pair are not trying to out-act each other, rather, they play different sides of the same coin.

Scarlett Johansson, her nondescript English accent occasionally faltering, flitters in and out of the movie and is somewhat outshone by newcomer Rebecca Hall, while Caine again provides the experience in a part he expertly played for Nolan once before.

The style of storytelling may not be to all tastes, which is exactly why Christopher Nolan is a rare beast in Hollywood – a big-budget filmmaker who's allowed to ask his audience to think.

Rich Phippen