The Machinist

Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) hasn't slept for a year. During the day, the emaciated man stands at a machine under the watchful eye of his foreman Tucker. In the evenings, he seeks solace with the prostitute Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) – or has the waitress Marie serve him a cup of coffee at the airport café at the same time every day. Trevor works in heavy metal manufacturing, where he meets his new colleague Ivan one day. Distracted by a threatening gesture from Ivan, Trevor's carelessness leads to a serious accident in which one of his colleagues loses his arm. But there is no one named Ivan employed at the company, nor is he known to anyone there. Trevor trusts himself and his perceptions less and less. Yellow notes are supposed to remind him of important things to do, but Trevor can't make sense of some of them—and did he really write them himself? British acting star Christian Bale (“The Dark Knight”) lost nearly 30 kilograms for this role, which is almost a third of his normal body weight. He wasn't the only one who pulled out all the stops for this material with its first-class script. Director Brad Anderson had to move the entire shoot to Spain because he couldn't find any producers in America – even though the story is set in L.A.