Thinking about our Lent theme of Turn/Return has me reflecting back on one of my favorite movies, The Prestige. It is a movie about rival magicians played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, set in late 19th century London. Explained by one of the characters, the movie takes its title from a convention in magic that holds that any magic trick consists of three acts: the pledge, the turn, and the prestige.
In the pledge, the magician shows you something ordinary. At the turn, the magician makes this ordinary thing do something extraordinary like disappear. The third act...