Christian Bale is the incredible shrinking man in unsettling new psycho thriller The Machinist. Online reader Dean Agius finds Method in the madness...

Just about every review you'll read begins with the facts of Christian Bale's unfathomably disturbing 63 lbs weight loss to play central character, Trevor Reznik.

This review, self-evidently, is no different.

WATCH the trailer for The Machinist: slow - medium - fast (Real Player required)

Indeed, the publicity stills for the picture can do little to convey the arresting image of Bale cast in shadow - his eye sockets deep and dark, his razor sharp ribcage almost tearing through his gaunt, drawn skin.

Fortunately the risk of the actor's looks overshadowing the way he acts lasts no more than the first few scenes, for Bale puts in a memorably weighty performance in this superior psychological thriller.

The Machinist opens at night with Reznik preparing to dispose of a body wrapped in an old carpet, near what appears to be an abandoned industrial estate. He is caught midway through by the glare of an inquisitive guard's torch.

Tellingly, for a film that is in essence a journey through one man's disjointed mental state, the film then resorts to flashback to provide that unsettling opening with a backstory.

Reznik it transpires is a heavy machine operator who has not slept and scarcely eaten for a year.

After Ivan (John Sharian), a brutishly unnerving co-worker, flashes him a goading stare, Reznik accidentally sets off a drilling tool that causes another worker, Miller (Michael Ironside) to lose an arm.

The scene is protracted and painful, and there is something so terrifyingly inevitable about the motion of the drill, that you cannot help but share in the character's helplessness.

growing neurosis

Reznik becomes convinced that there is a conspiracy against him, and with good reason. After the accident, sinister Post-It notes start appearing on the door of his refrigerator, bolstering his conviction that Miller is about to precipitate an 'accident' by way of revenge.

As Reznick begins to unravel, his growing neurosis finds solace in the occasional company of two women.

Christian Bale dropped 63 lbs for the lead in The Machinist, and then built himself up anew for his role as the new Batman

One of them is Jennifer Jason Leigh, who puts in a convincing turn as Stevie - a fairly wasted though caring prostitute to whom Reznik turns for advice and infrequent oral relief.

The other is Marie (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon), a pretty waitress who works the twilight shift at an airport coffee shop Reznik frequents each night.

That it is to an airport he goes to establish a friendship seems a taunting metaphor for his inability to flee his demons; he's simply too rooted in his paranoia to escape.

With The Machinist, director Brad Anderson (Sessions 9) does for the psychological-thriller what Alexandre Aja did for the horror-thriller in last year's impressively stylish Switchblade Romance, borrowing heavily from the best in the genre and producing something that is, in part at least, an homage to the work of Hitchock (Vertigo, Psycho), Lynch (Mulholland Drive) and Fincher (Fight Club).

Even though the tricksy plot reveal at the end of the film isn't that much of a revelation, given all the clues that precede it, there is something hugely satisfying in seeing this filmic jigsaw puzzle finally fitting together.

The Machinist, somewhat ironically given Reznik's climactic realisation, is a film you will not easily forget.

Agree or disagree with this review? Add your thoughts below:

The Machinist review on BBC/Films

The Machinist director interview on BBC/Collective

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