Until now Bale's screen persona has been defined by a graceful athleticism; here his physicality is repellent, yet he carries the occasionally creaky plot of Scott Kosar's unsettling screenplay to a resonant finish.

| Oct 24, 2011

A few scenes into the gloom and you'll have a good idea what is generally up, if not the specifics, making the journey toward the eventual, inevitable twist fairly one-dimensional.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2006

One can't deny the dubious appeal of the spectacle of the skin-and-bone Bale, quite possibly endangering his health for the sake of his art.

| Feb 9, 2006

Some people will pick up the clues early in The Machinist and some won't. I got some, not all, but I remained unengaged throughout, largely because of the film's deliberateness, which feels like lack of passion.

| Jun 10, 2005

A gimmick with no real payoff.

| Original Score: C | May 4, 2005

Bale's performance has the emotional weight to substantiate this body-art spectacle, ranging from prickly self-righteousness through panicked self-doubt to morbid self-pity...

Full Review | Mar 1, 2005

You'll join the dots in Anderson's thriller within the first five minutes - a real crying shame since Bale deserved much more for his pound -- or 63 -- of flesh.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 26, 2005

It's one of those movies that you admire more than you enjoy, but Anderson and Kosar are clearly talents to watch.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 3, 2004

It begins dark and depressing, but ends up merely dull.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Dec 3, 2004

It is well worth enduring for the performance of Bale.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 3, 2004

Though Bale deserves all the credit that can be heaped at his feet ... there is far more to this sinister psychological thriller than just exhibiting Bale's emaciated form.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 2, 2004

Anderson definitely has a flair for creating a diffuse sense of fear, paranoia, and mental illness onscreen.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 28, 2004

Mainly this is all Bale's show. He is strangely sympathetic, taking us right into Trevor's pain without any special pleading.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 24, 2004

A powerful, accomplished movie that lingers.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 24, 2004

It's an overly calculated, schematic graph of a script that eliminates the things we go to the movies to experience: interesting characters, a story we can relate to, an emotional release.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Nov 23, 2004

The director Brad Anderson, working from a screenplay by Scott Kosar, wants to convey a state of mind, and he and Bale do that with disturbing effectiveness.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 19, 2004

It's a carefully layered, tautly directed and superbly acted psychological thriller.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 18, 2004

A moody psychological thriller with a stunning performance by Christian Bale at its core.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 18, 2004

The thing we most dread is that this existential mystery will have an unsatisfying resolution, and in this case, our worst fears are realized.

Full Review | Nov 18, 2004

Smacks of a movie made by people who've spent a lot more time watching movies than absorbing them.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 12, 2004