Machinist, The - 2004

Most well known as "that film where he lost all that weight", The Machinist is an excellent psychological thriller that will keep you guessing and staring at the stupidly skinny Christian Bale.

Directed by Brad Anderson (who's work you'd know from many HBO series) it follows the life of Trevor Reznik, a machinist who has been suffering insomnia for the past year. His massive weight loss and odd behaviour has caused his work colleagues to distance themselves from him... and when he is responsible for one of his co-workers to lose an arm they turn on him and things begin to get crazy!!! After trying to find the man who was distracting him at the time of the accident, it is revealed that not only is there no record of this man (Ivan) working at the plant, but no one else has seen him before. Convinced that this is all an elaborate plan to drive Trevor insane, he goes on a journey to discover the truth and find out what the visions he's been having mean.

I won't go too far into the plot of this film, because part of the fun I found was just going along with the ride and discovering things as Reznik does.

The film was shot in and around Barcelona and looks incredible. I found the cinematography to be incredibly beautiful... and even though it used a monochromatic palette, it totally captures the dark and twisted world that Trevor is living in. Blues, greens and greys are used so effectively here ... and it's almost jarring when something red or bright comes onto the screen... I'm assuming that was a deliberate choice of director Brad Anderson.

It was reported that Christian Bale lost 28 kilo's for the role... stating on the DVD commentary that his diet of 1 apple and a cup of coffee helped him achieve such a scary weight loss. It pays off... with many of the scenes in this film Bale is topless and or running around in clothes that just drape off him. Bale portrays the insanity and struggle of his character very well, and also invests you emotionally in his downward spiral... Jennifer Jason Leigh also stars in this film as a prostitute that develops feelings for Reznik and does a standard job.

It runs at a brief 97 minutes and I feel it's a perfect length. Whilst I did pick the twist at the end, it was still an enjoyable film and reminds you that beneath all the yelling that Bale does in films like Batman and Terminator, there is a really talented man here... that can not only lose shit loads of weight in films... but act his pants off.