Charlotte Observer by Lawrence Toppman

To talk more about the movie's layers is to risk giving away too much. I'll say only that this film confirms Nolan's status as the director whose work I look forward to more than any other.

Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

Nolan directs the film exactly like a great trick, so you want to see it again the second it's over. I'd call that wicked clever.

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

The film's prestige is a doozy, both dazzling and preposterous, but if you're watching closely -- as Cutter advises in the film's first few minutes -- it's flawlessly set up.

USA Today by Claudia Puig

A visually stunning, startlingly clever sleight of hand that will have audiences pondering well after the lights go up.

Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman

The Prestige isn't art, but it reaps a lot of fun out of the question, How did they do that?

Washington Post by Ann Hornaday

Bale and Jackman inject their reliable charisma into two otherwise very cold fish. Okay, I'll say it: If you see only one magic-at-the-turn-of-the-century movie this year, make it this one.

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

The Prestige does more than focus on magicians. It is so in love with the romance, wonder and ability to fool of stage illusion that it becomes something of a magic trick in and of itself

The New York Times by A.O. Scott

Stuffed with hard-working actors, sleek effects and stagy period details, The Prestige, directed by Christopher Nolan from a script he wrote with his brother Jonathan, is an intricate and elaborate machine designed for the simple purpose of diversion.

Newsweek by David Ansen

Take the movie's first words to heart: watch closely. You'll be well rewarded.

Slate by Dana Stevens

The Prestige is utterly without pretense. It doesn't want to explore epistemological questions about the nature of perception and memory; it just wants to mess with our heads. And as a wily, slightly sadistic chess game of a movie, it succeeds quite nicely.

Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer

Has its moments.

Village Voice

The result is a lopsided yet absorbing movie in which the director is less drawn to his main characters than to those on the periphery.

Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips

Many, I suspect, will fall for The Prestige and its blend of one-upsmanship and science fiction. I prefer "The Illusionist," the movie that got here first.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Paula Nechak

If you can forgive some woeful casting and a plot that is as creakingly thin as an old staircase, you can enjoy director Christopher Nolan's The Prestige.

The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt

Audiences might enjoy this cinematic sleight of hand, but the key characters are such single-minded, calculating individuals that the real magic would be to find any heart in this tale.

Variety by Dennis Harvey

Clearly, director Nolan is aiming for something else. But the delight in sheer gamesmanship that marked his breakout "Memento" doesn't survive this project's gimmickry and aspirations toward "Les Miserables"-style epic passion.