"Ghost in the 'Machinist'"
by Scott Mantz

"The Machinist"
Christian Bale,
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Directed by Brad Anderson

I'll sleep when I'm dead!  Christian Bale is haunted by a terrible secret in "The Machinist"

Sometimes, an actor will take drastic measures to be convincing in a performance, even if it means undergoing an incredible physical transformation to do it.  Just witness Tom Hanks, who lost around 60 pounds to portray a stranded plane crash survivor in “Cast Away.”  Or check out Robert De Niro, who famously packed on some serious weight to play both Jake La Motta in “Raging Bull” and Al Capone in “The Untouchables.”

Amazingly, those performances pale in comparison to Christian Bale’s portrayal of a paranoid insomniac in “The Machinist.”  After buffing up to play Patrick Bateman in 2000’s controversial “American Psycho,” Bale sheds it all and then some -- an astonishing 63 pounds from his already svelte frame -- and from the moment he appears on the screen, you will not believe your eyes.  With his eyes sunk into his head, veins popping out all over his body and his ribcage exposed in excruciating detail, he’s quite literally a shell of a man.

But was it all worth it?  I mean, we are talking about a movie here, and no movie is worth starving yourself to the point where you put your health at risk.  Regardless, there’s no denying that Bale’s disturbing level of commitment adds an incredible amount of tension to an already engrossing, ominously shot and well-acted psychological thriller that ends with a killer payoff.

Trevor Reznick (Christian Bale) hasn’t slept in more than a year, and every waking minute is an unrelenting nightmare of confusion, guilt and anxiety.  Trevor’s frail state is having dire consequences on his job at an industrial factory, which takes a devastating turn for the worst when a freak accident costs a fellow co-worker (Michael Ironside) his arm.  But is Trevor going insane?  And why does he keep finding cryptic notes on his refrigerator?  Who is the mysterious bald-headed figure (John Sharian) who keeps antagonizing him at every turn?  Why does the clock always say 1:30?  An exhausted Trevor will stop at nothing to answer these questions, but he is in for a rude awakening when he discovers the shocking truth about his destiny.

Once you get past Bale’s appearance (if that’s possible), you’ll find that director Brad Anderson (“Next Stop Wonderland,” “Session 9”) and screenwriter Scott Kosar (the remake of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) have crafted a finely detailed thriller that gets under your skin.  The cinematography is dark and metallic, with most of the colors faded to the point where it almost feels like a black-and-white film.  Anderson also makes effective use of Roque Banos' Bernard Herrmann-inspired musical score, which gives the film a Hitchcockian edge and a mysterious, otherworldly vibe.  The only problem is that the surprise ending may not be all that surprising to anyone who’s seen “Fight Club,” and Bale’s tiny frame is so jarring that it tends to be distracting from the rest of the film.

Given how deathly ill he looks (and probably felt while making the movie), Bale would easily have been forgiven if he just showed up for work, delivered his lines and called it a day.  But amazingly, he still manages to give a strong performance that balances insanity, desperation and sympathy.  He’s also backed by a solid supporting cast that includes Jennifer Jason Leigh as a hooker with a heart of gold and Michael Ironside as the tough co-worker who finds himself on the wrong end of a factory machine.

The fact that Bale would put himself through the wringer like this makes him either the most committed actor of his generation or just out of his friggin’ mind.  Either way, it’s one for the books, and given how much he’s thrown himself into every role since starring in Steven Spielberg’s under-rated 1987 epic “Empire of the Sun,” it certainly bodes well that he’s been entrusted with the keys to the Batmobile in next summer’s “Batman Begins.”  Even so, here’s hoping that Bale doesn’t take his role as the Caped Crusader nearly as seriously as he did here!

Back to Scott's New Movie Reviews

Review Archives