LIKE buses, you wait ages for a film about turn-of-the-century stage magicians to come along and then two arrive together. So how does The Illusionist rate against The Prestige?.

They both have their good points with The Illusionist being slightly less ambitious and, some might say, pretentious. Both are suitably baffling as they try to pull the wool over our eyes and then the rug from beneath our feet as the trick is revealed.

Norton stars as magic man Eisenheim, who wows theatre audiences in Vienna with his tricks. He's so good, particularly at conjuring up apparently otherworldly apparitions, that his act comes to the attention of Crown Prince Leopold (Sewell). The royal reckons that Eisenheim is a fraud, going along to one of his performances in the hope of exposing him. Instead, his fiance Sophie (Biel) plays Debbie McGee to Norton's Paul Daniels and falls under his spell, romantically speaking.

The crown prince seethes with jealousy, putting Chief Inspector Uhl (Giamatti) on the case with the aim of showing up the magician as a trickster. All concerned have reckoned without Eisenheim's sleight of hand and mind-bending trickery.

Just don't believe everything you see as you try to outguess the magician and predict the ending of this well-staged movie written and directed by Neil Burger.

Stars: Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel, Rufus Sewell
Running time: 109 mins
Rating: Four stars