Pro Ana Existentialism--The Machinist

The Machinist

The Pro-Ana community can now officially count a man as their skeletal golden boy. With the DVD release of Brad Anderson’s The Machinist, a film in which American Psycho star (and now new Batman) star Christian Bale dwindled down to an alarming and, by any self respecting girl-with-an-eating-disorder's approval, impressive 110 pounds, the legion of the skinny have a brother among their female brethren. I say this without irony for, The Machinist, an ultimately disappointing Dostoyevsky-ian tale, is not only saved by Bale’s painfully obsessed performance but given almost unintentional layers—the camera loves, indeed, fetishisizes his bones to the point of detailing each sharp turn of his hip, jaw and ribcage with ghastly, loving detail.

Bale plays the Nine Inch Nails-sounding Trevor Reznik, a lonely guy who hasn’t slept in a year and, aside from one scene during which he wolfs down chicken like a crazed bulimic, he hasn’t eaten either. His decimated looks alarm both his employers and co-workers, men working alongside him as a machinist— a job that brings dangers when not paying close enough attention. Trevor’s friendly manner with these men is destroyed after one gets his hand cut off in the equipment—the fault of a distracted Trevor. Is he thinking of that slice of pie the special waitress serves him at the diner (and he in turn, barely touches)? Well, no…there’s considerably more turmoil haunting his conscience past food, something director Anderson (Session 9) and screenwriter Scott Alan Kosar attempt to unravel via spooky clues that may or may not be happening.

Partly inspired by Roman Polanski’s The Tenant and Fyodor Dostoyevsky short story “The Double” (which really would make a terrific film), the picture achieves an affectively dingy, gloomy aesthetic and offers an intermittently scary story of tortured double-ism (there’s a mysterious man Trevor repeatedly bumps into) but the film moves toward silly scares and easy resolutions instead of the ambiguity it’s supposedly influenced by. It’s a shame given the picture’s beautifully creepy score complete with theramins and Bernard Hermann-esque bass punches and of course, Bale’s emaciated dedication to this character.

Using his thinness for grotesquery and humor, the film shows Trevor weighing himself daily, pasting post-its of his deteriorating mass on the wall. Why is he doing this? Does he enjoy being skinny? In another scene in which he lies in bed naked with the only woman who perhaps, understands him, a prostitute (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) the juxtaposition of her fleshy nudity next to his jagged body can’t possibly be a mistake. Anderson is getting off on Bale’s wasted glamour.

Which underscores that though the director is devoted to his story, this is Bale’s show all the way. From his 6’2 frame usually at a healthy 180 pounds, the withered actor left me simultaneously awed and sickly fascinated. I couldn’t stop staring at his bones. The bones jutting from his chest, the visible vertebrae I found myself counting, the sunken-in face. I confess I find hunger intriguing, and one aspect of Guy Pearce’s masterful performance in Memento (a film clearly, riffed here) was his running-on-fumes visage. But Pearce didn’t look concentration-camp lean, he still looked like Pearce. Bale, however, is almost unrecognizable.

Most films use weight gain to obscure an actor’s beauty or to level their normalcy (Raging Bull, Monster, Bridget Jones Diary) but few showcase loss as a form of inscrutability. Fewer still, if any, revel with such anorectic ardor. Is it healthy to have such a fixated response to Bale's bones? Probably not, but his film is infinitely more intriguing and oddly enchanting because of it.

Paramount releases "The Machinist" in a gorgeous transfer coming in Dolby Digital 5.1. Extras include 8 deleted scenes, theatrical trailer, commentary by director Brad Anderson and a better than average featurette "The Machinist: Breaking all the Rules" in which a physically wasted Bale is shown discussing his eating habits--you'll be conviced he is anorexic. And something of a genius to boot. Wish the film could have been as good as Bale. Release Date: June 7.

Comments

[Bobo]

Hey,Kim.I have to say in all honesty,that this movie was one of the best I've seen all year.It was one of those movies that I had an initial opinion on,that ended up being totally different after I saw it!My first impression was that the whole weight loss thing seemed like a gimmick,but it actually added another element to this very strange,abstract movie.Given that abstract aspect,and really figuring out that most of/all of the stuff going on doesn't pertain to conventional reality,I found some of the more outrageous stuff,forgiveable.When your not dealing with reality,nonsense reigns, sometimes!It is a movie that should be required to see at least twice,there is so much that is missed and more that makes sense after you know what's going on.You get the whole movie wrapped in a nice little bow in the scene where Bail's character is in the spook house with the kid(Oh,boy a Spook House!).That scene pretty much goes over your head unless you've seen the movie before.There were a few different elements I picked up on that seemed to share some traits with other movies.The whole movie in general,particularly the end reminded me of Jacob's Ladder.Throughout the music seems like something out of a Hitchcock film,and there were parts that sounded like old sci-fi flicks,particularly Ed Wood movies.Man,two Ed Wood references in one comment section.What is going on?

[Natalia]

this is an old entry but it has to be said it's really insightful and I share the "bone fetish" and awe in this particular case.