The Machinist

I may have mentioned once, or maybe like 6 times, that I like Christian Bale. Based on that sound reasoning, I decided to Netflix some of his older movies. Hard to believe I don’t own them all already, right? I have always been trying to Netflix a lot of what I call “crazy movies,” that leave you with your jaw hanging to the floor or you scratching your head, or some combination of those two things. A crazy movie can either “wow” you with its intense action, suspense, plot twists, or totally dialed-in acting performances. The Machinist is a crazy movie. Not because of anyone of these elements, but because of a combination of them all. The action is limited, but is intense when it occurs. Yes, I have a decent vocabulary, but no other word but “intense” would do justice to this movie. This movie is very suspenseful, although semi-predictable. The same can be said of the plot twists. I honestly do not think it is bias at work here, but Bale’s performance was Oscar worthy. This isn’t the greatest movie, but his performance makes it very worthwhile to watch. The best word for it is “dedicated.” The dude lost extreme amounts of weight, even when he probably didn’t have to, just in the interest of truly embracing the character he was portraying. If you can stomach watching a fairly solid, but not amazing movie (with some strange elements) just to appreciate good acting, then definitely rent this. If you aren’t up for that, well, your loss because it’s still worth watching regardless, verdict for Bale’s performance: $$$$$, verdict for the remaining elements of the film: $$$, overall verdict: $$$$