Last year two very good features involving magicians made their way into cineplexes. The Illusionist was the more audience-friendly film, one of the great sleepers of 2006. I remember watching the movie and thinking the magic was a little too fantastical, wondering why the filmmakers would push the bar so high to border on disbelief. But writer-director Neil Burger is a hell of a lot smarter than I am, it seems. Yes, I later realized it’s really a set-up for the third act, where fantasy and illusion must be blurred and a final sleight of hand is revealed.

The other magician tale released was the even better, more substantial movie of the two … Christopher Nolan’s fantastic The Prestige. This is a call to arms for all film fans. Get this movie. Watch it. And then watch it again. It demands multiple viewings.

You may not have seen them on a ton of critics’ lists, but trust me when I say Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman gave two of the year’s best performances. Jackman had a phenomenal year between this and The Fountain, and it isn’t until the end that you can truly appreciate how great Bale is in the movie.

Fans of the Christopher Priest’s novel will be more than pleased. Nolan, along with his co-screenwriter (his brother, Jonathan Nolan), made very intelligent choices when adapting Priest’s novel, and the result is something more narratively satisfying than the book. This is a very, very dark film about the world of magic and burgeoning technology. And like all of Christopher Nolan’s films, it is another foray into the minds of obsessive men. There are a few twists around here, more thematically interesting than the one found in The Illusionist. Some you will figure out, others most likely not. It doesn’t matter, though. What does matter is what those twists reveal: the wickedness and the darkest parts of obsession. One of my top five films of 2006, The Prestige will haunt you long after it ends. It’s no magic trick, just great filmmaking.

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Dre writes five times a week for Film.com, covering movies and DVD with his Floridian flare. E-mail him!