The Machinist Review

Some actors are willing to suffer for their art. Robert De Niro famously gained some 60 lbs while filming Raging Bull while Tom Hanks shed the stones to play the shipwrecked lead in Cast Away. Well now add Christian Bale to that list as the star adopts a skeletal look for new thriller The Machinist. An emaciated Bale plays Trevor Reznik, a factory worker whose inability to sleep has left him haunted and distracted, a state that causes an industrial accident at work that costs one of his colleagues his arm and leaves Trevor a virtual pariah. Add to this his heightening state of paranoia and slowly Trevor's life starts to unravel. But what's behind this rapid decline? And who is Ivan (John Sharian), the mysterious man it would seem only Trevor can see?

Shot in Spain over just forty days, this is one dark and menacing little movie. The physical transformation Bale undergoes is jaw-dropping as various flashbacks see him fit and healthy but, when we witness him parading around his apartment half naked, his frail and withered body will make you gasp. Whether or not he needed to take his dedication to the role quite as far as he did is questionable but it certainly offers an effective aesthetic. Writer / director Brad Anderson's Kafka-esque script will keep you guessing as you try and piece together the various clues he drops throughout the movie as to Trevor's secret but be patient because it's not until the final reel that everything falls into place - and even then several questions remain unanswered.

"Batman Begins", which is due to open later this year, will undoubtedly make Bale of the biggest movie stars on the planet - perhaps "The Machinist" was his way of proving that he can be a serious actor as well as a Hollywood pin up.