Until now Bale's screen persona has been defined by a graceful athleticism; here his physicality is repellent, yet he carries the occasionally creaky plot of Scott Kosar's unsettling screenplay to a resonant finish. full review

[Bale's] is a great performance, full of commitment and sacrifice, and The Machinist is one of the year's best films. full review

A stunt that didn't merit Bale's startling, and dangerous, transformation. full review

It begins dark and depressing, but ends up merely dull.

It is well worth enduring for the performance of Bale. full review

Though Bale deserves all the credit that can be heaped at his feet ... there is far more to this sinister psychological thriller than just exhibiting Bale's emaciated form. full review

It would be easy to accuse Bale of a warped kind of egomania if his performance wasn't so mesmerizing. full review

Mainly this is all Bale's show. He is strangely sympathetic, taking us right into Trevor's pain without any special pleading. full review

A superior exercise in mood and atmospherics, a drama that springs from a place of deep disturbance.

A powerful, accomplished movie that lingers. full review

If grimly atmospheric studies in alienation are your cup of tea, you should find director Brad Anderson's dark brew especially tasty. full review

It's an overly calculated, schematic graph of a script that eliminates the things we go to the movies to experience: interesting characters, a story we can relate to, an emotional release. full review

The director Brad Anderson, working from a screenplay by Scott Kosar, wants to convey a state of mind, and he and Bale do that with disturbing effectiveness. full review

It's a carefully layered, tautly directed and superbly acted psychological thriller. full review

A moody psychological thriller with a stunning performance by Christian Bale at its core. full review

Smacks of a movie made by people who've spent a lot more time watching movies than absorbing them. full review

Anderson's effort here isn't bad, but, as measured on the scary-intruder index, this is more of a front-porch flick. Movie over, it's not hard to shut the door on it. full review

Give Anderson credit for at least sustaining a mood. full review

A stylish but fatally shallow puzzler that suggests a Twilight Zone episode filmed on the leftover sets of Seven. full review

Psychological suspense at its finest. full review