A mesmerizing performance by Bale.

Rating: 7/10 (10 November 2014)

"The Machinist" is a bleak, psychological and deeply disturbing piece constructed by director Brad Anderson that examines raw terror which lives inside every man. Bale's physical transformation for the role is unreal--he lost 63 pounds. In addition to his radical physical transformation, he provides a marvelously terrifying performance as well. "The Machinist" is an expertly manipulated exercise in psychological horror, as it reveals itself gradually, allowing us the pleasure of slowly putting the fragmented pieces together.
Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) hasn't slept in a year. The shocking deterioration of his physical and mental health make his every waking moment as an unrelenting state of confusion and paranoia. He hallucinates and begins to have trouble discerning reality from fiction, and the story begs the question, "what is real, and what is not?" Neither Trevor nor the audience may answer until the final moments of the film. One man's struggle with his very essence -- living in a state of severe physical decline, confusion, uncertainty, and self-doubt -- represents a horror that supersedes all others.
"The Machinist" looks appropriately dreamy and visually detached from reality. The visuals are subtly hypnotic and the movie seems to reflect Trevor's life, which is devoid of certainty. It presents a surreal series of events surrounded by equally surreal imagery, but remaining ever-so-slightly planted in reality that adds a tremendous amount of doubt and confusion as to where the story is going. The film conveys a state of mind, and Bale does that with disturbing effectiveness. Bale offers a spellbinding and haunting performance from a mental and emotional perspective to his physical transformation as a tortured soul on the brink. Not until the very last moment do the pieces snap into a completed puzzle that's as tight as a steel trap.