The Machinist

Back when this came out (2004) people were telling me, “You like Fight Club & Donnie Darko; you’ve gotta check this out.”  But it stars Christian Bale & I absolutely hated him in American Psycho (because I was a fan of the novel & I think the movie is a misinterpretation of it (which I suppose is more the fault of the screenwriter & director than Bale)).  But when I watched the new Terminator movie I felt like Bale is an okay actor & I was just having a bad view of him from seeing a few less than stellar movies. 

So I was at my brother’s house & he had The Machinist in cue for his Netflix stream & so I watched it.  Basically it’s another “Owl Creek Bridge” alternate reality movie & it’s fine.  I can’t really tell you what makes one alternate reality movie special to me & another one just a movie.  Maybe it’s just what kind of week I’ve had before watching it.  (Spoiler) If the ghost had been his father instead of himself, I think the movie would have been a lot more interesting to me.  Or maybe if I hadn’t walked into the movie knowing the twist it would’ve worked better as well.
The extreme thinness of Bale in this movie was funny to me, because granted he’s probably taller than me, but the waist size (26) is the same as me & I only weigh 125 pounds (he’s down to 121 in the movie) & a few years ago when things were screwed up in my life I dropped down to 112.  I think 114 was the most I weighed until I was 25.  Did I look as skinny & sickly as this?  No wonder the ladies didn’t know what to think of me….