Top Five Roles: Christian Bale

I’ve been side-eying Exodus:  Gods and Kings for using a depressingly-white cast to tell its Egyptian story, and Christian Bale’s remarks on the subject do him no favors.  Still, whatever my thoughts about this movie, the fact remains that he’s an excellent actor who’s brought some fantastic characters to life over his long and varied career.  These are the roles that rise to the top.

Jim Graham (Empire of the Sun)

Obviously, Spielberg had a hand in this – any time someone so young gives such a performance, it’s safe to assume they had a terrific director – but it’s just sublime all the same.  Bale hits every note in this demanding role, a privileged young expat who lands in a Japanese prison camp after the war separates him from his parents.  As sheltered Jim learns to survive his deadly situation, you can’t take your eyes off of him.  27 years later, the P-51 scene is still some of his best work.

Laurie (Little Women)

This was the first film I saw Bale in, although I didn’t know it was him until years later.  I love this engaging, passionate performance as the spirited neighbor of the March girls.  Both he and the film get it just right, that Laurie isn’t a brooding, romantic hero as the girls first imagine him.  Rather, he’s a boy through and through, one with a sly sense of humor, a lust for life, and an ache for companionship.  Even as I see why Jo/Laurie wouldn’t work, I love to watch them together.

Bobby Platt (All the Little Animals)

I’d wager that this odd indie film is mainly known by fans of Bale, John Hurt, or the book it’s based on.  Bobby is a gentle young man with a TBI who runs away from his abusive stepfather.  Along the way, he meets an old loner who, like Bobby, gets along with animals better than people, and Bobby joins his work of putting animals killed by human indifference to rest.  He’s a lovely character, sweet but strong even in his vulnerability, well realized by Bale.

Patrick Bateman (American Psycho)

This one’s obvious, but that doesn’t make it any less necessary.  As the murderous yuppie Patrick Bateman, Bale commits 100% to the insanity within and without his character.  There’s the calm, matter-of-fact way he dispatches some victims and the gleeful relish with which he does in others.  There are his obsessions, his vanity, his materialism, and his absolute bats-in-the-belfry craziness, and his acting in the “Hip to Be Square” scene is one for the ages.

John Preston (Equilibrium)

I really like this sleek, dystopian action piece, and Bale is terrific as a man who’s lived a muted, artificial life but whose eyes have been opened to the full expanse of human emotion.  He’s great as first the emotionless citizen, then the lost man overwhelmed by foreign sensations, and finally the rebel whose feelings bleed through his mask of blankness.  Tons of wonderful moments, but my favorite has to be Preston, his emotions undampened, hearing music for the first time.