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Amazon.co.uk Review
As a bleak and chilling mood piece, The Machinist gets under your skin and stays there. Christian Bale threw himself into the title role with such devotion that he shed an alarming 63 pounds to play Trevor Reznik (talk about "starving artist"!), a factory worker who hasn't slept in a year. He's haunted by some mysterious occurrence that turned him into a paranoid husk, sleepwalking a fine line between harsh reality and nightmare fantasy--a state of mind that leaves him looking disturbingly gaunt and skeletal in appearance. (It's no exaggeration to say that Bale resembles a Holocaust survivor from vintage Nazi-camp liberation newsreels.) In a cinematic territory far removed from his 1998 romantic comedy Next Stop Wonderland, director Brad Anderson orchestrates a grimy, nocturnal world of washed-out blues and grays, as Trevor struggles to assemble the clues of his psychological conundrum. With a friendly hooker (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and airport waitress (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) as his only stable links to sanity, Trevor reaches critical mass and seems ready to implode just as The Machinist reveals its secrets. For those who don't mind a trip to hell with a theremin-laced soundtrack, The Machinist seems primed for long-term status as a cult thriller on the edge. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Crime and Punishment,
By
This review is from: The Machinist [DVD] [2004] (DVD)
"The Machinist" is one of the best films I have seen this year; it has great acting, a mysterious and thought-provoking plot and is visually stylish. The viewer is never quite sure if the insomniac machinist Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) is paranoid, hallucinating or being subjected to a form of supernatural mental torture as a series of disturbing events unhinge him. As the film progresses, the distinction between reality and imaginary blurs as Bale's mind becomes a hell to him. "The Machinist"is gripping and intriguing throughout and its ending will make you revisit the whole film again in your mind , a bit like "The Usual Suspects".Christian Bale's performance is remarkable as a tortured soul trying to identify the source of his torment in a loveless, isolated world where sleep and peace of mind remain constantly elusive.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Original psychological thriller,
By Some Bloke (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Machinist [DVD] [2004] (DVD)
This is a fairly dark, surreal, psychological thriller about an industrial machine operator living a life of solitude in his own dreamy hell.
The central character acts brilliantly through the torment and confusion. Searching out the truth following some strange events and encounters, he finds some buried information painful to discover. Without revealing too much about the plot, it's a good story. Not so odd it's never been done before, but with some originality. The confusion is built up well, and the truth is revealed for those of us who don't latch on. When that happens, everything gets tied up neatly and you re-evaluate everything you saw, 'sixth-sense' style. Good entertainment, and something for your mind to do. Reccomended.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Weird and compelling,
By
This review is from: The Machinist [2004] [DVD] [2005] (DVD)
OK, so I've watched The Machinist once and will definitely be watching it again.
I don't know what to say about it really - I think the description on the DVD case says 'Fight Club meets Memento' and I'd go with that. It has a edgy, stark feel to it - very much a sense of sleeplessness - disconnected at times, not sure what's happening or what's going on. And for all of that, by the end of it I wanted to watch it again - I suspect it's one of those films where a lot of stuff makes much more sense the second time round. And to say Christian Bale is thin doesn't even begin to describe the physical presence and pathos, if that's the right word, that he brings to this role. Haunting.
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