hail the bale

Rating: 9/10 (3 August 2005)

This movie was interesting. Firstly for 20 minutes it is hard to even watch Christian Bale without feeling ill. Losing 28 kilos must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but surely one visit to the mirror and the man realised he was in trouble. After getting over that sick feeling your watching someone about to die, I really started to evaluate the movie. It seemed very arty, with an almost blue tinge to it. It reminded me of Fight Club, Memento and Requiem for a dream at times. There was a melancholy underneath everything that Christian Bale did. I sat mesmerised by the movie, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking sure it's a beautiful movie to watch, and sure Bale is brilliant as always, but is it really a special movie. I was unsure for most of the last half hour, until the end came, and then I'd known I had just seen a very special movie. It was unoriginal in an original way, and I'm so glad I saw it.