To see Christian Bale like this is a major shock

Rating: 4/10 (14 July 2010)

'The Machinist' (or 'El maquinista', its alternative title) is a Spanish film in English language. It is a strong psychological movie, a movie of extremely moody nature and one that is difficult to digest for some.
Christian Bale portrays Trevor Reznik, the title character. Trevor has had chronic insomnia for a year and a drastic loss of weight. The results of this are very visible: his corpse-like appearance, his puzzling behavior, his impossibility of concentration, his insanity and his obsession on the idea that every bizarre event in his life is purposely meant to drive him nuts.
The film is extremely weird and bizarre. Plus, it is clearly one of (more than dark) sinister nature. Not just for the story and the bizarre stuff, but also for the extremely dark backgrounds/sceneries that only accent this feeling of creepiness.
For this role, Christian Bale went through a brutal loss of weight as a personal decision. To achieve that, he went on a radical diet for something like 4 months. Actually, he wanted to lose even more weight, but the filmmakers didn't allow that because of concerns related to health. He is unrecognizable in this film. Who would say that this is the kid from 'Empire of the Sun'? I sincerely think it's crazy that he subjected himself to this, not only damaging his health but also exposing his health and life to serious risks. That is so dangerous! It's incredible what people do for money...
Until I watched this movie, I had never heard of it and didn't know what was it about. I got to see it because a friend of mine has the DVD and he loaned me.