A Tortured Soul's Denouement

Rating: 8/10 (15 October 2006)

Fight Club meets Twelve Monkeys, but in a role only Bale could do. A tour De force plot drives a morality tale about the expiation of conscience. The musical score is wonderful, as are the locations. I hope Bale--like Edward Norton--does not do too many 'delusional' roles. Playing a blue-collar American, Christian Bale shows he can become anyone. He starves himself in this role in a bit of 'method acting' that would challenge Kafka's "Hunger Artist." Superbly brooding and desperate, the plot continues to surprise through the last scene.
As for the rest of the cast, Jennifer Jason-Leigh should hang up the whore with a heart of gold character. Or wait, was this Elizabeth Shue in "Leaving Las Vegas"? Sharian as Ivan has a great bit part, looking like the fattened Brando as Kurtz.
There are Trevor Reznik's in the world, deeply in need of solace.