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.
The Machinist (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 131
Fresh: 98
Rotten:33
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Consensus: A suspenseful low-budget thriller where Christian Bale completely inhabits his role.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for violence and disturbing images, sexuality and language
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Oct 22, 2004 Limited
Box Office: $939,471
Synopsis: Christian Bale delivers one of cinema's most sacrificial performances in Brad Anderson's mesmerizing thriller. Written by Scott Kosar (2003's THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE), THE MACHINIST takes place... Christian Bale delivers one of cinema's most sacrificial performances in Brad Anderson's mesmerizing thriller. Written by Scott Kosar (2003's THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE), THE MACHINIST takes place in a bleak and nondescript American city, where Trevor Reznick (Bale) is quite literally withering away to nothing. During the day Trevor works in a colorless industrial factory, while at night he seeks refuge in the bed of a tender prostitute, Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh). For reasons unknown even to Trevor, he hasn't been able to sleep for an entire year. In the process, he has shed over sixty pounds, making him look like a walking skeleton. After an accident at the factory costs Trevor his job, he finds himself tracking a mysterious figure that may or may not, in fact, provide some answers to his confusion. Meanwhile, he begins to connect with a pretty airport waitress, Marie (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon), who shows Trevor some much-needed sympathy. By the time the film builds to its revelatory conclusion, it becomes quite clear just what has been tormenting Trevor all along. Anderson and Kosar's vision is brought to spectacular life by cinematographer Xavi Gimenez and composer Roque Banos, whose haunting atmospherics recall the best work of Alfred Hitchcock. And then, of course, there is Bale, whose performance is as terrifying, brave, and devastating as the screen has ever seen. [More]
Starring: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Michael Ironside
Starring: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Michael Ironside, John Sharian
Director: Brad Anderson
Director: Brad Anderson
Screenwriter: Scott Kosar
Producer: Julio Fernandez
Composer: Roque Banos
Studio: Paramount Classics
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Release:
May 19, 2009
Blu-ray Disc Features:
- Region [unknown]
- NTSC
- Widescreen
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby True HD 5.1 - English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
- Subtitles - English - SDH
- Subtitles - English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary:
- 1. Director Brad Anderson
Trailers:
- 1. Theatrical Trailer
Additional Scenes:
- 1. Trevor Visits Mysterious Grave
- 2. Alternate Intersection Crosscut with Burning Paper
- 3. Pensive Trevor (Alternate Transition to Airport)
- 4. Stevie's Mysterious "John"
- 5. Alternate Chase Ending Revealing Chimneys
- 6. Trevor Tries To Skip Town
- 7. Trevor Confronts Mother at Cemetery
- 8. Alternative Version of Holding Cell
Reviews for The Machinist
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.
The Machinist, in terms of its gimmicky, save-the-conceit structure, is a bit like the self-consciously clever Memento but not even half as fun.
It's a somber, sometimes slow-slithering dark piece that's heavier on style than substance, but it all works.
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.
One 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.
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
Anderson's use of lighting, editing, sound design, and score hit just the right nerve endings, creating a film that keeps turning over in your mental gears for days afterward.
Some people will pick up the clues early in The Machinist and some won't. I got some, not all, but I remained unengaged throughout, largely because of the film's deliberateness, which feels like lack of passion.
A chance for Bale to show off his new lean look for what the filmmaker mistakenly thinks is art.
Christian Bale gives his best by giving less in this nightmare tale of a machinist who is one tool short of the full set.
The performances are nothing short of superb - Bale's skeletal form alone is likely to be the most haunting visual image of the year.
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