Enjoyably dark but lacks development and the conclusion is less than satisfying (mild suggestive spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (30 March 2005)

Trevor Reznik is a machinist in a typically greasy and intensive factory. For almost a year he has not slept and the effects on his health are clear for all to see as his weight has fallen off to leave him so thin that he barely exists and so worn looking that he looks steps from death. His tiredness also feeds his paranoia  although it may be that he is rightly paranoid in this case as someone seems to be putting him under pressure over something that he cannot figure out. An accident at work turns his colleagues against him; a mystery man who nobody else knows seems to be stalking him and someone is leaving notes on his fridge door  playing a deadly game of hangman with him.
The premise for this film sounds brilliant and many who love the weird thrillers that recent years have seen will be flocking to this hoping for more of the same. In this regard the film will offer great hope to such viewers from the opening minute onwards because it gets the atmosphere spot on from the get-go. It all feels very tense and edgy and we are never in doubt (like Reznik) that something is going on and we want to uncover what it is. This mood is created and supported by great direction from Anderson, who paints the film so dark that it was sometimes hard to see  even the bright outdoor scenes feel like they have had the colour bleached out of them.
That the film lacks atmosphere is not a problem that this one ever has to deal with, for it has it in spades. No, the problem begins as I started to want to build on this atmosphere and start to give me more intrigue and development as it builds to a strong ending. Sadly it didn't do this aspect well enough  the film never really tells us anymore or makes much more happen; red herrings along the way are dismissed mere minutes after they are started and they don't provide a wider story. When the answers come, they come all at once at the end  a delivery that isn't helped by the fact that the conclusion is actually not that strong and pretty much does what most of us would have expected even if the detail wasn't guessed. This is a shame because the air of dark mystery was so well done that it really had me interested and the way that it didn't seem to have much to do before the ending acted as a bit of a let down.
However, this is not to say that it was terrible because it was far from being that. Although I'm not one for style over substance, here the atmosphere really carries it while the material provides just enough movement to keep me interesting  it was just a bit frustrating that it didn't do the latter better. The atmosphere is only helped by a wasting performance from Bale  an actor whose massive weight loses and gains can only help his reputation generally. He is sickeningly thin, haggard throughout and convincingly paranoid; he is the core of the film and he is a big reason that it works. The support cast features plenty of well-known faces but few of them are well used and seem only to have been cast in order to throw the audience in different directions. Leigh is good, Ironside is a presence and people like Gilliard and Sanchez-Gijon do well; Sharian is a strange menacing presence but does it reasonably well but really the film belongs to Bale and it is hard to imagine anyone managing to steal it from him.
Overall this is an enjoyably dark thriller with a wicked atmosphere and mystery within it. Such a shame then that the story doesn't build on this and instead just seem to plod along with the odd red-herring here and there before rushing it all out at once in a plausible but strangely unsatisfying ending. Director and star both do their damnedest to make it work and it is to their credit that it nearly succeeds but it is an underdeveloped script from Kosar that proves itself to be lacking when called upon.