Has there already been a thread on this?

I saw it last night, and @ Christian Bale. Now American Psycho is my favourite film of all-time, but OMG what a transformation from that to The Machinist. All that aside, I thought his general performance was magnificent, as was the directors direction, whatever his name was.

Taureau said:

Just looked this movie up coz I've not heard of it before, but it does sound interesting

I thought Bale was good in American Psycho but didn't rate the actual
movie (<---- Please view this emoticon whilst standing on your head )

I wanna see this movie!!

How was the film overall (storyline, plot, other actors, etc)???

senik said:

Well I suppose it's not quite my favourite favourite movie, but it's definitely up there...I just really got off on the way Bale portrayed the character from the book, and there's some scenes that really show this of well. Some scenes make me well up with admiration, like the bit where he drops the chainsaw on that girl. Ok that was a joke But still, I think I'm the only one who likes it so much, pretty disconcerting really!

Anyway check out The Machinist, it's a refreshing change from Hollywoodesque flicks, and if I didn't rate Bale before I think this movie would definitely open up my eyes.

Byron said:

The cinematography reminded me of The Ring remake in a way, in that the director used a lot of lense play and colour/tone alteration to give a dream-like state that really worked well with the fact that Bale's character is an insomniac..though the film is more a suspense/thriller than a horror.

The script is by the writer of Texas Chainsaw I think, and admittedly uses some cliche tricks to keep the suspense flowing, but really I had no problem with this as it really did work. I wont explain the plot (other than, he's an insomniac, shit starts happening, and he has trouble working it all out, right up to a revelationary climax), but I can say that it is a mind-fuck...the audience are continuously striving to figure wtf is going on, just as Bale's character is, and for me the synchronisation of character and audience is what makes for a great film. The direction really works on this, but I really think Bale's portayal was dare I say, perfect for a relatively 'well-known' i.e. unknown actors tend to give better performances on gritty roles like this because their personalities are unknown, thus the reality of their performance is more readily accepted. I think Bale's literal transformation from beefed-up dude from Am. Psych. to an 80pounds-less human-skeleton naturally helped this, ofcourse, but his acting itself was strong to say the least.

As for the other actors, the nature of the plot meant that they were very much back seat characters, but all of them were strong. Jen Jason-Leigh plays his hooker bird and Michael Ironside is in it as well. I think the casting was pretty good (good balance of 'unknowns' and 'talent').

Really considering the film is indie, I wouldn't have expected anything better, yet it could have been a LOT LOT worse. The ONLY grind I had against it was the flaws of a cheap little special effect that most won't notice anyway, or at least won't bother about.


Hope that convinces you!