Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Crime and Punishment, 28 Sep 2005
"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.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What good is a home if you can't relax in it?, 17 Jan 2007
To be honest with you, I am slightly disappointed with myself that it has taken me so long to get round to buying this DVD, given that I saw (and adored) the film on the day it was released in the cinema. I am, however, glad that I watched this again AFTER watching American Psycho - otherwise I would have totally condemned Bale as an actor. Recognisable only by his voice, Bale is totally convincing as the insomniac machinist in this film. Full marks (and five stars) must be awarded to this film on the strength of his performance alone.
I won't go into the synopsis of this film, as the thirty-three people who have reviewed this before me have done that job more than admirably. I will, however, comment on a couple of the positives that make this film a must-see. Having seen this film before, I wasn't really watching it for the (albeit outstanding) storyline, moreover I was watching it for the same reason that we all watch "Sixth Sense" again* - to pick up on the subtle clues that I missed the first time round. Although technically not clues, I must comment upon two of the outstanding features of the film: the cinematography and the ghost-train scene. The film is largely shot in a blue-grey (film noir?) setting - a stroke of genius which accurately reflects the whole mood of the story-line. The "washed out" colours not only serve to disguise the fact that the film was shot in Barcelona, but also represent how "washed out" Bale's character must feel having not slept for a year. Secondly, the ghost train is one of those scenes that you see in film that will haunt you long after you have watched it - not because it is scary as such, but because it is so close to reality (think of the reason "why" the scene where the girl cimbs out of the TV in "The Ring" is so frightening - because we can identify the TV as a household appliance that we use everyday). I have been on some good ("Terror Tomb" at Chessington World of Adventures) and some very bad (Brighton beach) ghost-trains - but never any that are good because they are so bad. Although the character's that he sees on the way around the track on the ghost-train are cheap-looking, the fact that they resonate so much with Bale's state of mind makes them so effective.
The product placement in this film was also very effective and is generally only noticeable on the second time of watching - keep your eyes open for Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot" lying on the coffee table - not there (as a previous reviewer has said) to make the character look pseudo-intellectual, but no doubt placed there because he feels that he is becoming "The Idiot" as his sanity slips away. I also noticed at the climax of the film that Bale is wearing a t-shirt with the logo "Justice Brothers" on it - a nice touch considering how the film ends.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A refreshing walk on the dark side of paranoia, 5 Aug 2005
If you like your movies dark, depressing, eerie, mysterious, and borderline insane, The Machinist should definitely be on your "to see" list. In these days of sequel- and remake-itis, it's always a treat to find a movie that dares to be original and to walk a dark line all its own. Director Brad Anderson and Christian Bale definitely get an A+ for effort here, but I don't think the ending is quite as effective as it could have been. It's easy to cross the line when you're dancing in a dark and narrow place, and the movie went just a little too far into "the whole world's crazy and everyone's out to get me" (which, on a completely unrelated point, is my personal motto) territory before bringing everything into focus. (That doesn't stop me from giving the film five stars, however - The Machinist is worlds better than most of the junk coming out of Hollywood these days.) Speaking of effort, I don't know what to say about Christian Bale - no Fat Albert to begin with - dropping 63 pounds in order to play the character of Trevor Reznik in this film. He is painfully thin here; a few less pounds, and you could zoom him right through your copy machine and have all the Christian Bales you could want. Why is his character so thin? Well, he hasn't slept in a year, and that kind of wears on a fellow after a while.Trent is - you guessed it - a machinist. It doesn't look like a great job, but he obviously makes a killing, as he leaves $20 tips every night at the diner and enjoys many an evening with a call girl who sort of becomes his girlfriend. Jennifer Jason Leigh is about the only pretty thing you'll see in the 102 minutes of the film. We first meet Trevor when he's approaching his breaking point. The job of machinist can be quite hazardous, especially if you work with Trevor. When a guy punches in with two arms and punches out with only one, the co-workers get a little restless. Technically, it's Trevor's fault, but he was distracted by this seriously weird co-worker he had just recently met - a guy who, according to everyone else in the shop, doesn't even exist. As you might expect, Trevor becomes rather obsessed about finding out who the guy is and what he wants. As he goes increasingly cuckoo for cocoa puffs, his only links with sanity are Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) the call girl and Marie (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon), his regular waitress at the airport café. The best way I can describe The Machinist is to suggest that it must be a lot like one of Tim Burton's dreams. There's an oppressive pallor over the whole thing that seems to drain every single image of any color or vitality, and Trevor moves around rather wraith-like in his emaciated form. The mystery of it all starts out with great strength, but I think the director just overplayed his hand a tiny bit - and, by doing so, made the ultimate ending somewhat (but not completely) predictable. It's still a five-star effort all the way. If you just want to forget the world and be entertained for an hour and a half, seek your pleasure elsewhere. When you're ready to indulge the dark side of your personality and engage your mind at the same time, though, you could do much worse than settling yourself into a cocoon and entering the surreal world of The Machinist. This film is, in a word, different.
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