A for Bale, B+ for film

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2004)

Christian Bale, who has never really impressed me except in American Psycho, turns in a tour de force performance in The Machinist, an indy thriller I saw at Sundance last night. He lost a ton of weight for the role. It's obvious from the progression that some scenes were shot at different times, as Bale gets more skeletal and there is a brief scene in which he looks healthy. Beyond the physical work, Bale is mesmerizing as an extremely troubled blue collar worker who is trying to discover what's wrong--either with him or the world. I won't list any spoilers here. Jennifer Jason Leigh is fabulous as always as his hooker girlfriend. The most memorable aspects to the film for me is the use of what I'd term "Twilight Zone" music. The soundtrack sounds like TZ or The Outer Limits, and there is a definite 60s television feel to the eerie puzzle script. The palette is mostly browns, sepia, and though there are modern cars and other signs of modernity (cell phones, etc) the scenes could be anytime USA. There is a heavy-handed amusement park scene which almost works, and a few fairly obvious turns in the figure-it-out plot, but overall very effective. Bale is so good at looking in shock, tired, hopeless, afraid, frenetic, etc that he holds your eye throughout the film. I'm sure this will get picked up and distributed widely.