The Machinist (2003)
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 140
Fresh: 107 | Rotten: 33
A suspenseful low-budget thriller where Christian Bale completely inhabits his role.
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Critic Reviews: 37
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 9
A suspenseful low-budget thriller where Christian Bale completely inhabits his role.
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 132,819
Movie Info
Brad Anderson directs the psychological thriller The Machinist, a production of Spain's Filmax company. Christian Bale plays Trevor Reznik, a factory lathe operator who has developed a serious case of insomnia. Lack of sleep has already started to wear down on his brain and his body. When he's involved in an accident at work, his co-workers turn against him. He starts to find strange notes in his apartment and see people that apparently aren't there. Jennifer Jason Leigh stars as call girl
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Cast
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Christian Bale
Trevor Reznik -
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Stevie -
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón
Marie -
John Sharian
Ivan -
Michael Ironside
Miller -
Lawrence Gilliard Jr.
Jackson -
Reg E. Cathey
Jones -
Anna Massey
Mrs. Shike -
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All Critics (142) | Top Critics (37) | Fresh (107) | Rotten (33) | DVD (31)
Until now Bale's screen persona has been defined by a graceful athleticism; here his physicality is repellent, yet he carries the occasionally creaky plot of Scott Kosar's unsettling screenplay to a resonant finish.
Top CriticOne can't deny the dubious appeal of the spectacle of the skin-and-bone Bale, quite possibly endangering his health for the sake of his art.
[Bale's] is a great performance, full of commitment and sacrifice, and The Machinist is one of the year's best films.
It's one of those movies that you admire more than you enjoy, but Anderson and Kosar are clearly talents to watch.
A stunt that didn't merit Bale's startling, and dangerous, transformation.
It begins dark and depressing, but ends up merely dull.
If Nine Inch Nails, Swans and Ministry ever loomed large in the landscape of your imagination, Anderson's gloomy aesthetic may exert a sour but lingering pull.
A brilliant, harrowing performance by Bale.
It's not necessarily a fun or loveable picture, but it is interesting and entertaining.
With time as a buffer, it's now easier to see The Machinist for what it is: a labyrinthine leap down the rabbit hole into a nightmarish wonderland.
It's fulfilling to watch a psychological thriller that demands the audience watch, pay attention, follow along, and decipher for themselves without falling in to the usual Hollywood conventions.
Here, shorn of every ounce of body fat, Bale is laid open like an autopsy specimen, and he easily gives his best performance.
Bale is superb as Trevor, able to not only convey the wasted person within, but to avoid making his physical appearance the only thing we care about or notice.
Um angustiante pesadelo que, trazendo Bale numa performance corajosa e repleta de auto-sacrifício, funciona como um estudo poético sobre os extremos da culpa.
Christian Bale starves himself to near-death proportions in this trippy, creepy film about insomnia in the workplace.
full review in Greek
It's a somber, sometimes slow-slithering dark piece that's heavier on style than substance, but it all works.
An intelligent, well-crafted picture.
A few scenes into the gloom and you'll have a good idea what is generally up, if not the specifics, making the journey toward the eventual, inevitable twist fairly one-dimensional.
An absorbing and eerie study of paranoia and psychological torment.
Kosar has ... constructed an exercise in existentialism that is so literal it's a true feat that he was able to reign it all back in for the somewhat tidy ending of this film.
It's like a film the Coen Brothers would have made, back when they still made good movies.
replacing phrase "going De Niro" with the phrase "going Bale" in many vocabularies
A clever, taut thriller that will have everyone guessing right up to its avant-garde conclusion.
Audience Reviews for The Machinist
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Trevor Reznik: Stevie, I haven't slept in a year.
- Stevie: Jesus Christ!
- Trevor Reznik: I tried him too.
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- Trevor Reznik: A little guilt goes a long way.
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- Stevie: Well, don't look so surprised. Even a call girl can scramble an egg.
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- Marie: Trevor, is someone chasing you?
- Trevor Reznik: Not yet. But they will when they find out who I am.
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February 10, 2011:
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Movie: ID: 13015 Title: The Machinist Release Date: 2004-10-22 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- Der Maschinist (DE)
- El maquinista (ES)
