I saw The Machinist last night. I don't know why this flick hasn't gotten more publicity. It's a remarkable film. Christain Bale stars as Trevor Reznik, the paranoid insomniac, anorexic machinist searching for truth through the haze of his self-inflicted disorientation. His performance is amazing. For one thing, he's in every single scene in the movie. His character is dillusional, often confused, on the brink of collapse, and Bale makes it all so believable, all the more so because Bale, who was famous previously for working out like a machine to develop his body for American Psycho, lost a 1/3 of his body weight for film, from a heathy 180 to a sickly holocaust survivor-like 117. His fauce is beyond gaunt. His rips are protruduing. He looks like something from an anatomy class. Apprently he lost the weight by simply not eating. He continued to lose weight during the 40 days of the shoot, It's hard to believe that anyone would have such a committment to a role that he'd be willing to essentially destroy his body, but that is exactly what Bale has done, and you have to respect him for that.

The Machinist is a throwback, full of homages and allusions to Hitchcock and fits nicely into to the genre of modern Film Noir. It's not shot in black & white, but it as well have been as the colors have all been bleached out of the film and the DP shot it with all sorts of interesting, contrasty shadows. So visually you are transported into the bizarre, disorienting world of Trevor where nothing is as it seems. The score which is haunting and subtle could have been pulled right out of a Hitchcock thriller. Best of all the story is told in a flashback. When we first meet Trevor, he's disposing of a dead body. The narrative leads both the audience and Trevor down the path of understanding what went wrong.

There are a few standout performances by Jennifer Jason Leigh and the Spanish actress Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, but it's worth seeing just for Christian Bale.

If you liked films like Fight Club & Mememto, you will love The Machinist