Grade: C+ | Genre: Drama Summary: This is a tough movie to make happen. It takes a lot of patience to see it through to the final revelation, concerning what brought Trevor to this disturbed state. Actors have often sacrificed their better sense by going to extremes for a juicy part. Look at the gorgeous Charlize Theron gaining all that weight and generally mucking herself up for the role of Aileen Wuornos in Monster. We heap praises upon them for their authenticity and their daring to mess up their life for the sake of art. Is there a line where they go too far? If there is, Christian Bale has crossed it with the Machinist. He dropped 63 pounds for the part, which resulted in an emaciated skeleton akin to what you would see in concentration camp footage. It's pretty disgusting to look at, and he's the central focus of the entire two hours.

Christian Bale has been in a lot of films since he broke through as a boy in Spielberg's Empire of the Sun in 1987. He has fairly shrewd taste in choosing the films he is associated with, ripening to perfection in Laurel Canyon and American Psycho. He tends to steer his career towards independent features. All that is about to get snuffed out as he takes on Bruce Wayne in the box office burner Batman Begins ($15 million in its opening day), which is sure to explode his acting stock through the roof. It may be some time before we get to see him in indie fare again so that brings us to the latest entry on his indie resume, the Machinist.

Bale plays Trevor Reznik, a machine worker who has lost weight to the point of incomprehension. The sight of him is grotesque and disturbing. Try as you might, you can't escape him. Add the fact that he hasn't slept in a year and you've got quite a demented character. He left insomnia behind months ago. It is another state of consciousness at this point. To say he looks like hell warmed over would be an extreme compliment. Something happened to trigger this deterioration, but we've only got a few puzzle pieces to work with at this point.

The Machinist Starring: Christian Bale & Jennifer Jason Leigh Director: Brad Anderson Buy or Rent the Machinist You may also like... Memento Fight Club American Psycho

Jennifer Jason Leigh is his call girl girlfriend. She is his small measure of sanity in a life that is slowly becoming uprooted, along with a waitress who serves him coffee at the airport every night at 1am. As the film progresses, we become awash in cryptic clues. Someone mysteriously puts a post-it note on his refrigerator, drawing out a game of hangman. He also persistently experiences deja vu episodes and fails to see obvious things like blood leaking from the refrigerator.

This film is comprised of one massive build-up. We watch as Trevor's world continues to unravel as he desperately tries to piece together the clues to discover who did this to him. The 'this' is a rather vague entity conspiring against him. The Machinist resembles an old episode of the Twilight Zone -- only much longer. The director spends an hour and a half building this very loose plot that is like trying to judge his intentions through a dense fog. It's an interesting piece, yet not quite as compelling as it needs to be. It takes tremendous patience to work your way to the actual payoff. The payoff is worth the stretch, but it does little to make-up for the exhausting lead up that it took to get there. The music is also a culprit here. It tries so hard to be ominous in all the wrong places. This is one of the worst scores I have ever heard.

Christian Bale's performance is great, there is no denying that. Trevor is one buggy, creepy guy, and Bale captures that like an expert artesian. My only issue is with the weight. It's like he intentionally went so far over the edge with the weight loss, to the point where it was unnecessary.

This is a tough movie to make happen. It takes a lot of patience to see it through to the final revelation, concerning what brought Trevor to this disturbed state. It seems to want to be like its big brothers Memento and Fight Club, yet it comes off rather flat like a B-movie offshoot of the two. Maybe Christian Bale was taking on Memento 2 to impress Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan. Mission accomplished. Now don't let all the fame go to your head. There aren't that many naked, chainsaw wielding American Psychos out there we can replace you with.