The Prestige is Science Fiction. Since it's set in the Victorian era, I guess that makes it part of the Steampunk subgenre. But the film hides this. The film's genre' is a key element of the reveal. You have no idea that the film hinges on a sci-fi element until the last act.

It starts off looking like very much like the The Illusionist - another great film that I highly recommend. But The Prestige is deeper, more complex, and ultimately more disturbing and thought provoking. Imagine two card games – Spades and Contract Bridge. Both are great games, both are played with the same deck of cards. But one game asks more of its participants. The Prestige quite literally asks for a greater commitment from the audience:

"Are you watching closely?"

A Contract Bridge player could be forgiven for believing (incorrectly) that the standard deck of cards was created for their game. Every element of the standard deck - the suits, the ranks - is essential and is exploited by that game at a level that other card games can't touch. That's The Prestige. Old sci-fi tropes like the philosophical problem of the transporter in Star Trek (are you actually transported OR are you destroyed and then cloned elsewhere?) are used to better effect here than ever before. Though we know it's not true, this film is such an intricate device that it feels like these elements of fiction were invented to serve this story.

The movie is also a character study of the price of obsession and ambition. Early in the movie Robert Angier's (Hugh Jackman) wife dies apparently because of a mistake made by the film's other magician Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). This death is given, initially, as the reason for the feud that follows between Angier and Borden. But in anger Angier reveals that this is not the case. The feud is all about obsession, envy, and pride.

Some viewers might be turned off by the viciousness of their conflict. There is no clear-cut protagonist or antagonist. Neither magician is morally admirable. Both have sold-out to the obsession that they have in common but can never share - the passion to be the best illusionist in the world.

Ultimately this mad contest drives Robert Angier to seek out a real wizard - Nikola Tesla - the real-world archetype of the "mad scientist." Like Angier and Borden, Tesla has been fighting a similar war with Thomas Edison. But by the time he is introduced, his war is lost. And Tesla knows it. He accepts Angier's challenge to make real magic more for the private satisfaction of beating Edison than for any glory or money.

The problem - Tesla doesn't deliver a transporter. It's a copy machine. One Angier goes in, two Angiers come out. Because there's room for only one Angier, each performance requires a suicide. Or is it murder?

Its interesting that Angier limits himself to 100 performances. Why? Hugh Jackman does a superb job showing that Angier is bothered by what he is doing. How many times would you want to kill a copy of yourself? How many times would you want to take the 50-50 chance of being the one who is killed?

Through a mind-bending twist, Angier sets Borden up as the murderer of one of the dying Angiers. I suppose that if you're willing to kill yourself over and over for your obsession, what's unjustly sending your rival to the gallows compared to that?

When you think there couldn't possibly be another twist, Borden's double life is revealed. You learn how far he went to fulfill his obsession. He also took it to another level.

Fun, disturbing, and thought provoking. This film is a modern classic. It will be enjoyed by the public and studied by film students for years to come.