Kamikaze Bale

Rating: 7/10 (21 September 2005)

The Machinist was made with Spanish money but had an undoubted international vocation (the cast, the perfect making). The movie it's all about the bad conscience as a weapon of massive destruction of our lives. Not only keeps us awake night over night but also absorbs our whole existence, it fattens up out of our suffering.
The audience will be completely disconcerted for about 80 minutes, because the story, the "whys", the "hows" will show up at the very end of the film in only 2 or 3 minutes. Anyway, the images are powerful enough to get you stuck to your seat.
So The Machinist is a nice thriller in the Lynch way (never as good as the Canadian genius)... but there's something in it that deserves to be underlined: Mr. Christian Bale. What an actor! He's a real kamikaze, just like Lon Chaney, just like De Niro used to be. Bale lost so much weight for the movie that he looks like a living-dead (I guess they didn't need any make-up). Someone who puts in risk his own physique just to build the perfect character can only receive our praises. The rest of the cast shrinks compared with Bale's work, but Jennifer Jason Leigh makes a good job (her typical "living on the edge" role), and Aitana Sánchez Gijón demonstrates she's as good acting in English as she is in Spanish. If you liked "Lost Highway" or "Memento" go and give "The machinist" a chance, you won't repent.
*My rate: 7/10 (20/10 for Bale!)