2) The Machinist
Forget the headline weight loss, forget the film’s at-times overpowering oddness, its twists and turns – The Machinist‘s Trevor Reznik is one of Bale’s greatest creations regardless of what else is going on. The actor’s skeletal frame shows his dedication, but so does his absolute mental immersion, for a part that asks him to sit perpetually on the edge of madness.
In The Machinist, Bale is twitchy, volatile, dazed. Until he explodes late in the film, the actor never seems quite present, as if in a trance brought on by his own real run-down state. Reznik is a traumatised figure wrapped in a comfort blanket of denial and manufactured delusion, and Bale himself looks perpetually ready to break down throughout. It’s a performance that’s so much more than a 63-pound fast.