The first time i was really taken by the name Christian Bale regarding movies was American Psycho back in the 2nd quarter of 2000.

When The Machinist first surfaced at the film festivals around the world, the main topic was his unreal weight loss for the film. Usually around 187 pounds in weight...he managed to shed nearly 65 pounds for this film....and i have to add this wasnt at the advise of the director Brad Anderson. Anderson stated "I never requested Bale lose as much weight as he did". So if this is the case then why would anyone shed so much weight off their body so they look like a bag of bones standing up or in fact like a classroom skeleton.

Bale states that he never thought, at the time, that his dramatic weight loss would pose any health threat to his body. He is quoted as saying, "I had what could be called a kind of stupid feeling of invincibility, like, 'Oh I can do it. I can manage it.' " . His weight loss wasn't part of a specific diet or elimination of certain foods. In fact, it was the elimination of almost all foods and a lot of exercise. His exercise did not involve any type of weight lifting. He only wanted to lose the fat and keep from bulking up at the same time. His goal for the movie was to look like as if he had not slept for a year. I'm sure you'll agree that he definitely achieved this goal.

Bale received little assistance in the way of medical attention except for one visit when initially beginning his weight loss. He was given information as to what types of things his body would lose, such as vitamins and minerals and that he should take supplements for a number of those things. After that, Bale states that he was his own guide and kept going with his weight loss. As long as he still felt okay, he would continue to loss the fat. His own physical feeling was his gauge. He was told by many people working for The Machinist that if he got his weight down to 140 - 145 that that would be okay too. However, because Bale saw that he was able to handle his weight loss without much problem, that he would go ahead and lose another 20 pounds, bringing him down to the weight we see in the movie at 121 - 122. Bale is documented as stating, "I was intrigued by a perverse nature of mine just to see if I can go beyond what I've been told is actually safe and OK, and see if I could push the limits." It is said that Bale wanted to lost another 20 pounds even after reaching 121! I'm almost positive that in profile view of his body, it would disappear before all movie-goers eyes.

Christian Bale has said that his severe weight loss did create a change in his mood and emotions. He felt very "serene and calm" for the majority of the filming for The Machinist. It didn't seem to create much problem for him until he began to bulk up for the role of Batman in Batman Begins. He gained a shocking 100 pounds within the span of five months! He was definitely adding a lot of stress on his body and his heart.

Bale Plays the role of Trevor Reznik who works in a machine factory and hasnt slept for a year along with this he is fighting some demons and delusions which are completely soaked in paranoia.

Directed by Anderson who helmed the criminally underrated spooky horror flick 'Session 9' returns to a dark story of a man clearly unraveling and destroying himself in the process. Here we also have a sharply executed script by Scott Kosar.

Bale went above and beyond the call of duty in his display of Holocaust invoking demeanor yet it works shockingly well as it delves into the troubled soul of a man who is wasting away not only as a metaphor but as a penance for some hell to pay. a solid 8.9/10

THE MACHINST (2004) ***1/2 Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, John Sharian, Michael Ironside, Reg E. Cathey.

'Thinner' meets 'Memento' by way of 'Angel Heart' a la Hitchcock

There are a few select actors who have gained or shed weight to make a true transformation on screen but the one that will probably remain imprinted for years to come is the truly shocking display by Christian Bale who lost a whopping 63 lbs. to a skeletal shell of 120 for his portrayal of dank creepy perfection.

Bale stars as the afflicted Trevor Reznik, a shell of a man who works in a machine factory and apparently is nursing some horrible demon that has led to his astonishing appearance, ghostly pallor and paranoia soaked delusions that call to question his amazing confession: How can a man not sleep for an entire year and waste away to a shadow of his being and keep his sanity?

The answer isn't so transparent as Reznik becomes submerged in some sort of dreamscape nightmare of conspiracy theories and the innate distrust of his own mind playing tricks on him one night when he encounters the perpetually grinning Ivan (Sharian sporting the sharkiest Cheshire Cat smile in recent film memory) an apparently new shift employee who distracts him to the point of a horrific accident that causes his employer and co-worker to mistrust him and suspect his deteriorating looks as something a tad more sinister.

Reznik's only solace is in literally a mother-whore relationship he shares with a well-meaning lovely waitress (Sanchez-Gizon) at the airport diner he frequents as much as the hooker he lies with to express his thoughts and odd happenings (Leigh in her umpteenth whore role that must have filled her quota by now).

After the accident Reznik is plagued with a series of Post-Its sporting a game of hangman that leads to a few clues to his rationale and ultimately to his fate of 'Who Am I?'

Directed by Anderson who helmed the criminally underrated spooky horror flick 'Session 9' a few years back returns to a dark story of a man clearly unraveling and destroying himself in the process that echoes Stephen King's 'Thinner' by way of the identity crises of 'Memento' and the psychological thriller 'Angel Heart' yet invokes a sharply executed script by Scott Kosar (who penned the worthy remake of 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' last year) that recalls David Fincher meets David Lynch paroxysms of fate and the build up to a discovery that is all too recognizable to the thriller genre in recent years of identity masked as phobic reality with its latter day Hitchcock everyman skewed nicely. Kudos to cinematographers Xavi Gimenez and Charlie Jiminez for its bleak, green/grey drudgery and the Herrmannesque score by Roque Banos mixes perfectly to the dread at hand displays.

Bale went above and beyond the call of duty in his somewhat controversial display of Holocaust invoking demeanor yet it works shockingly well as it delves into the troubled soul of a man who is wasting away not only as a metaphor but as a penance for some hell to pay.

Christian Bale is Trevor Reznik, a machinist in an anonymous factory somewhere in America. He is obviously scarred by some past incident but what is it? He finds mysterious notes on his refrigerator, saying 'who are you?' He sees colleagues that don't exist. He seems to have lost it completely.

A Spanish production, but with Brad Anderson at the helm as director and an almost exclusively American cast, this is basically an American film. I must admit, I kept shelving this one, due to reasons I cannot really recall now I've finally watched it, but it probably had something to do with Christian Bale's insane weight loss and all the surrounding publicity. I assumed the film was all about Bale's loss of weight and not much more. A method boy in a film solely hyped for an actor's dedication to play the part, but the film blew me away, as simple as that. Christian Bale gives a solo turn here almost unseen before. No matter how many pounds he lost, it's a remarkable performance.

Director Brad Anderson succeeds brilliantly in conceiving an atmosphere that is so compelling, as one other user on the IMDb stated, 'You just HAVE to know what the hell is going on here.' I think that's the key factor in what makes this film so incredibly compelling. The whole setting is an anonymous industrial town somewhere in the US, that could be Pennsylvania, Michigan or upstate New York (actually, it was shot near Barcelona), but it doesn't really matter where the story is located. It's the atmosphere of estrangement that does it. And Christian Bale gives such an intense performance you really want to know his cause and background. Where on earth does he come from? We know he works in a greasy factory, but why is he skin-over-bone? Why hasn't he slept in over a year? Brad Anderson creates an atmosphere so broody and sleazy, it's like a netherworld, an urban nightmare. In a certain way it reminded me of the strange urban landscape in "Eraserhead" by David Lynch.

It would be interesting to know why this movie was shot in Barcelona, Spain and how it came to this American-Spanish Co-production. The Movie is full of details. Again and again aspects of strong tiredness are shown which I have experiences by myself. Of course I have never suffered from exceptional insomia, but the doubt, whether something is a dejavu or whether something just happened before of for the first time, all of that I can understand. For a long time you think that Trevor's insomia leads to a simple wellknown schizophrenia but in the end everything is a lot more low-digging which is great. In the end there is the question why Trevor works in a factory. If I add the cinematography, which shows a depressing image of the city Trevor lives in, I can't help of thinking about the "expressionism", when people could not deal with the depression of the city and feared the threat of modern life. I come to the conclusion that Trevor is a victim of the isolation, which, as a result of the cities, developed because of the industrialization.