It's no secret. Any of my friends know he's quite high on the Phred top [insert number here]
I remember seeing him in Empire of the Sun when he was like 13 and then a little later that movie Newsies. It wasn't until Swing Kids, another one of my favorite old movies, that I began to really get into him. Sexy, talented and fun to watch, Christian always struck me as a real actor. By real I mean not some hollywood construct that's prefabricated and packaged prefectly for public consumption. Too many "actors" these days are simply assembly line products rather than bona fide craftsmen.
Continuing on through his career, one of the sexiest cartoon characters in Pocahontas (Yes cartoon characters can be sexy.) was voiced by him much to my titillation. I love Thomas. He beats John Smith any day of the week.
Portrait of a Lady, Metroland (Love this film and Emily Watson as well!), Velvet Goldmine (One of my favorite movies), A Midsummer Night's Dream, American Psycho (Yay Brett Easton Ellis!), Captain Corelli's mandolin, Reign of Fire (The movie itself was a let down but he was nice to look at), Equilibrium (Vastly underrated movie. Love this film), Howl's voice in the english version of Howl's Moving Castle, Batman Begins (Rrrrrrow) and coming up as John Rolfe in The New World.
Last night I watched another of his movies. The Machinist. Wow.
This movie was a return to the creepy movies that used to make one get nervous as if one was the main character in the movie. 106 minutes of Hitchcockian Twilight Zone calibre film that kept me watching the screen. All the performances were great, Jennifer Jason Leigh (Who's always fantastic) and Christian, of course, at the top of the list. The most disturbing thing about the movie is how well you're sucked into the movie's setting. You want immersion? Nothing immerses you better than feeling like you really are watching a guilt-stricken man fighting with sleeplessness and slow, steady disintegration than seeing an actor who usually looks like this:
turn into someone who looks like this:
It's surreal. I've seen other performers take similar action for films, Ben Kingsley in Gandhi, Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple, but never to the level Christian did for The Machinist. He was unnervingly gaunt and his waistline alone made me wince.
The movie is superb. I recommend it to anyone who likes a good scary thrill-ride.
Phred Phun Phactor: 8.5 out of 10
In summary:
I love Christian Bale MORE.
2 comments:
I just finished watching this movie. Funny that I'm watching a movie about someone who hasn't slept in a year...only because I can't sleep.
Anyway....wow. Jeepers Christmas, was he thin! I mean, there's makeup effects that can make someone look emaciated...but that wasn't makeup. Talk about dedication to the acting profession.
But the one character that really creeped me out in this movie was Ivan. Mostly because of that unnaturally large smile of his.
I know! I hated it when Ivan would smile. Worse though was the toe hande-pincer deal. Freaky.
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