No Meat On Dem Bones

Rating: 5/10 (30 January 2015)

This is a movie I've been meaning to see ever since my cousin recommended it a long time ago. He mentioned the enormous amount of weight that Christian Bale had lost for the role and I remembered those haunting images going all the way back to the original TV commercials. So, I saw it and um... seeing Christian Bale really really skinny is almost the biggest payoff this movie has and I'm pretty sure I could have Googled some photos, maybe video and satisfied my curiosity had I only known what a waste of time this film would be.
The bright shining moments in this film are a few with Jennifer Jason Leigh who plays a hooker with a heart of gold vermeil. There is something about Jennifer that I really like and I think she should have been and still should be in many more movies, but good ones.
So, there's this terribly skinny guy who lives in an almost film noir world, there is color but it's very muted. The music is strange (almost melodramatic) and definitely sets a mood. The whole film is weird, that mix of I wanna be noir and I wanna be David Lynch but it's neither. To me it's just out of place. If this were made in the 1940's to early 50's with a serious tone, it may have worked. The story isn't strong enough for the films style or its weirdness and certainly does not justify anyone dieting themselves down to a near corpse. I guess if they gave Oscars for best skinny Bale would have blown 'em away but...
The point of Bale's weight loss is his character's attempt to vanish, to not be the person who he is which turns out to be a killer, hit and run in a red 69 Camaro. I forgot to mention that he's an insomniac who hasn't slept for a year. That plus a guilty conscious makes for a very paranoid delusional life. Finally he takes the exit on route 666 and confesses his sins to the police, he's wearing a tee shirt that I believe reads, "Justice Brothers." Yep. I mean I dunno, was that supposed to be heavy, deep? This film did not in any way, shape or form do it for me. It lacked any real substance and I bet Christian just gains it all back anyway, fatty. That last part was humor. Yes, I know he's not fat, at least until a script comes up needing a very very fat man... Jennifer Jason Leigh, we need you!