Watched: The Machinist

I'm starting to really like this Brad Anderson character. I remember picking up Happy Accidents back in the day when my family actually WENT to a Blockbuster store on Fridays and picked out a movie for ourselves (as in, got in the car and drove there...). I was really really into Vincent D'Onofrio at the time, was obsessed with him as Detective Goren, the quirky, Holmesian mastermind on Law and Order: CI and had seen him in The Cell and thought he was just great, the bee's knees, you know. And of course I love Marisa Tomei as well, because well, she's Marisa Tomei. So I rented this and at the time my teenage sensibilities had been like WTF?! but I still remember it being kind of a cool headtrip and sort of romantic. It mostly revolved around whether D'Onofrio was a time traveler or a nutjob, and that sense of uncertainty over his sanity and motives is definitely something that runs through most of Anderson's other movies, like the excellent (seriously, I'm still weirded out by it) Session 9 and also The Machinist.

You can see right away why Bale gets so much credit for this role. Physically, he's an absolute wreck. He's just bones and skin, and there were a few scenes where I was scared his organs were going to start protruding or something, he's so gaunt. But it's more than even his appearance. His character has a sort of strange light-heartedness, despite his obvious dementia, that I don't think I've seen in any of his other performances except maybe American Psycho, where that humor stemmed from his lack of empathy and, well, psychosis. Here he lightly self-deprecates, speaks softly, shuffles around slowly and tepidly. He's not just withered physically, it's as though his mind is atrophying and while he's afraid or unable to expend too much energy on anything, he's also kind of bemused by the whole situation. It makes his moments of intense paranoia-driven fear and rage that much more powerful.

I also like the way Anderson uses little moments of deeply unsettling imagery to keep the story tense and unnerving- the sunglasses Josh Lucas' character wears in Session 9, as well as the lone chair at the end of the hallway, Ivan's weird toe-thumb and the leaking fridge from The Machinist- come to mind. They're not blink-and-you-miss-it. He gives you plenty of time to consider their implications. And be fucking scared by them.

Which is to say, I'm pretty excited to see Vanishing on 7th Street. Hopefully Hayden Christiansen doesn't ruin it with his film-ruining ways. There was a time when I loved that guy. Life as a House, Shattered Glass? I was there. But not anymore. Not after what he did to Star Wars. Some wrongs can never be made right.

:(

Picture time!