if Lynch was Catholic

Rating: 8/10 (5 February 2006)

This movie looks really nice, done in pastel colors and shot in a way that everything seems to have a layer of dust on it. Christian Bale's body is really a pain to look at, I found myself cringing. He really is a very good actor - not for losing all the weight of course, but because of how he can get into character in all of his movies. Notice the way he slurs his words like an extremely feeble person would. The cinematography is also interesting, with Trevor usually shot so as to make him look separated - from the surroundings or from the people around him (if there are any), which further brings out his harrowing loneliness.
This is a movie about suffering, I think - suffering that one chooses not to admit (notice that Trevor rarely talks of his insomnia, for example). The story is really twisty, but you can feel you're slowly crawling someplace specific. The way things happen makes you think of David Lynch's movies, just with a different kind of metaphoric imagery. Instead of magic realism, we have visual religious metaphors here (fire, torturing machines, recurring physical torture, the crossroads, etc). One of the things I missed in this movie was just this lack of dreaminess (the surrealism is more in the visuals than in what actually happens), but then again, maybe this could be seen as being in keeping with the character of Trevor, who can't get any sleep and therefore, all dreams are withheld.
I must admit I really didn't like the ending (a little too simple for all that came before). Overall, however, it's a very well made movie. Don't miss Jennifer Jason Leigh in one of her best performances as the prostitute, Stevie.