Playing the title role of The Machinist is Christian Bale. Or is that Christian Rail? Yuk-yuk; the guy pulled a total reverse De Niro to shed something like 63 pounds to portray the sickly, skin-and-bones Trevor Reznik, the blue-collar worker who loses weight inexplicably and hasn’t slept for a year.
Stranger still, strange Post-it notes pop up around his apartment, like “Who are you?” and a six-letter game of Hangman. He’s a loner at work — even more so after he causes a bloody accident that costs a guy his arm — and the only real companionship he has is literally bought: regular rounds with a sympathetic call girl, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Which begs the question: Does Leigh have some sort of hooker-role punch card? There’s this, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Miami Blues — what does she get when she hits 10? An automatic Oscar? She’s good in this, as virtually always, but it’s Bale’s picture through and through. He’s totally believable as a paranoiac spiraling deeper into an abyss where reality and fantasy blur for him.
Director Brad Anderson seems to channel a good dose of Brian De Palma to drive this obsessive thriller, with Roque Baños serving as his Pino Donaggio/Bernard Herrmann for a score that has viewers on puppet strings. From an epileptic kid to a co-worker who looks Laurence Fishburne in The Matrix, The Machinist keeps you guessing for its whole; even if its twist is a bit of a letdown, all that comes before it is a stylish high. —Rod Lott
Don’t forget to add GIRLS OF THE WHITE ORCHID, THE MEN’S CLUB and SHORT CUTS to Leigh’s onscreen sex worker resume. There’s a reason why she was able to tell Garry Marshall that the lead role in PRETTY WOMAN was utter bullshit.
I caught this recently on Netflix and what an outstanding performance Bale delivers! Forget the hell he must have put his body through (losing the weight, then having to beef up for Batman), Bale should have gotten the Oscar for this movie.
As far as Leigh and her hooker roles… Yeah, it does seem that she takes more than her fair share for some reason (along with the druggie roles). Which is a shame because I think she’s a talented actress, but she rarely gets the chance to show it.