 Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four , describing the revelation at the end a " fundamental flaw " and a " cheat . " He wrote , " The pledge of Nolan 's The Prestige is that the film , having been metaphorically sawed in two , will be restored ; it fails when it cheats , as , for example , if the whole woman produced on the stage were not the same one so unfortunately cut in two . " R.J. Carter of The Trades felt , " I love a good science fiction story ; just tell me in advance . " He gave the film a B- . Christopher Priest , who wrote the novel the film is based on , saw it three times as of January 5 , 2007 , and his reaction was " ' Well , holy shit . ' I was thinking , ' God , I like that , ' and ' Oh , I wish I 'd thought of that . ' " 
