50
In a way, though, it’s all Bale's show. Withering down to an alarming 120 pounds, he delivers a deeply obsessed performance that leaves us both fascinated and sickened.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
75
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Bale is brilliant.
40
The Machinist has no meat on its bones, and we've seen it all before.
75
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
A harrowing experience for those to whom this sort of story appeals.
42
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
Bale exists all too large under the circumstances, a well-fed actor playing at emaciation for the sake of a fiction about a character whose torment is as unreadable as his vertebrae are countable.
30
Unrelentingly dreary, and seemingly destined to be remembered, if at all, as that movie Christian Bale lost a full third of his body weight for. It doesn't deserve any better.
75
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
Director Brad Anderson tightens the screws of suspense, but it's Bale's gripping, beyond-the-call-of-duty performance that holds you in thrall.
70
An intense, precision-controlled psychological mystery built around a very creepy lead performance by Christian Bale.