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The Prestige

* WHERE: Theaters everywhere.

* WHEN: Opens today.

* RATING: PG-13 for violence and disturbing images.

* RUNNING TIME: 135 minutes.

* BOTTOM LINE: Magic is at the heart of this devilishly clever drama, smartly plotted and expertly executed.

Hard to believe Christopher Nolan could come up with a more mind-twisting experience than "Memento" - but, abracadabra, he conjures up a deviously clever and richly executed drama in "The Prestige."

In London, around the turn of the last century, two young magicians, the patrician Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and the working-class Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), are working for an older stage illusionist and plotting their own turns in the spotlight. The friendship between the two is split after a tragic accident, and Angier and Borden become competitors and rivals - each determined to ferret out the other's magic tricks and destroy him in the process.

Caught in the middle of this struggle are Borden's wife, Sarah (Rebecca Hall), a comely magician's assistant (Scarlett Johansson) and their mentor, Cutter (Michael Caine). How does the inventor Nikolai Tesla (David Bowie) factor into the story? That, dear readers, is something you'll have to discover for yourself.

The movie's press notes ask reviewers not to give away too much of the movie, and I wouldn't want to spoil the experience for you, either. Nolan ("Batman Begins") and his brother and writing partner, Jonathan, adapt Christopher Priest's novel into a fiendish puzzle. The key is in the title - which, Cutter reveals, is the third act of any great magic trick, the part that takes the audience's breath away - and the dawning realization that the movie is structured like a truly original magic trick.

Nolan steeps us in the world of Victorian illusionists, who are treated like movie idols and who drive each other to bigger and more dangerous tricks. It's also an era when mechanical marvels are giving way to new technology - the wonders of electricity - and changing the very meaning of magic.

Bale, Jackman and Johansson enhance the illusion with performances that (for reasons that can't be explained without divulging too much) reveal multiple faces to the audience. It's the stripping away of those masks, and the slow unraveling of the story, that gives "The Prestige" its electrifying power.

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* SEAN P. MEANS can be reached at movies@sltrib.com or 801-257-8602. Send comments about this review to livingeditor@sltrib.com.