Quite simply...... excellent

Rating: 9/10 (31 July 2006)

I watched this film on satellite TV last night purely because there was nothing else on at the time. I knew nothing at all about the subject matter. Well, I must say that right from the start I was captivated by Christian Bale's fantastic performance as a man seemingly sliding into insanity. Throughout the film Bale manages to make his character a likable, ordinary guy whilst at the same time time giving him a quite scary and unpredictable edge which makes the viewer nervous. You are constantly on edge, expecting him to go off like a time-bomb at any second and frightened for the other characters as to what he might do to them! I can fully understand that this dark film may not be to everyone's taste, but it is undoubtedly a superb exercise in the highest quality acting from the entire cast. It is also an example of what great cinema can achieve, knocking all the Hollywood dross that we are force fed into a cocked hat! An excellent film indeed.