Though the film starts slowly, it unfolds irresistibly, thanks mainly to Bale's full-bodied, soulful performance.
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
A moody psychological thriller with a stunning performance by Christian Bale at its core.
It's like a film the Coen Brothers would have made, back when they still made good movies.
Christian Bale delivers one of the most astounding performances of the year in this exceptionally written psychological thriller. **
Bale's brilliance in the role lies not only in the fact that he starved himself for months but that he fully inhabits this wasted, paranoid man.
Christian Bale gives his best by giving less in this nightmare tale of a machinist who is one tool short of the full set.
Bale's performance has the emotional weight to substantiate this body-art spectacle, ranging from prickly self-righteousness through panicked self-doubt to morbid self-pity...
Though Bale deserves all the credit that can be heaped at his feet ... there is far more to this sinister psychological thriller than just exhibiting Bale's emaciated form.
Anderson does keep a fairly predictable, deeply depressing plot line engrossing for most of the way.
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.
Even in a time when weight gains and losses in the service of a role have become commonplace, Bale has accomplished an astonishing change.
The secret to the appeal of The Machinist is director Brad Anderson's ability to sustain an off-balanced, discombobulated mood throughout the film.
If grimly atmospheric studies in alienation are your cup of tea, you should find director Brad Anderson's dark brew especially tasty.
As flashbacks show Trevor at other moments, when his head is slightly less scrambled and his body less eaten away, the film is never not about process.
Director Brad Anderson is clearly going for more of a '70s character study vibe rather than that of a thriller, a decision which absolutely works.
Effectively weirded-out chiller about a factory worker who may - or may not - be a cold-blooded killer. Bale is brilliant.
Here, shorn of every ounce of body fat, Bale is laid open like an autopsy specimen, and he easily gives his best performance.
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.
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