Often, I have trouble understanding why fellow cineastes dislike movies I enjoy. I still don't quite understand why Kristen didn't like Seven Beauties and Heavenly Creatures or why Edwin didn't like Ordinary People. I understand exactly, however, why Kristen and Zach didn't like The Machinist, and their criticisms are accurate. It's kind of stupid and doesn't say much. But I enjoyed the movie (though a lot, lot less than the three listed above) for what it offers: the some wonderful photography, and for most of the way has a unique, disturbing atmosphere.
The movie opens as Trevor Reznick (Christian Bale), an ultra-thin, emaciated man, takes a body from his aparement and disposes it. After the opening credits, we see that Trevor lives a pretty empty life- he works the night shift as a machinist in a factory, where he is unpopular and regarded as a bit of psycho. He lives alone, with his only friendly social contact being his prostitue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and his waitress (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon). Things begin to go wrong when he finds strange notes written on his refrigator and accidently causes a co-worker (Michael Ironside) to loose his arm. It gets even stranger when no one but Trevor acknowleges the existance of Ivan (John Sharian) a big, threatining guy at work. Of course, we, the audince are try to figure out through the whole film whether the body dispocial scene was a flashback, or fast-forward.
The Machinist is not so much a thriller with a lame surprise ending as a mystery with an unsatisfactory solution. To the film's credit, I did not guess what is reveled at the end, but I was underwhelmed it occured. What makes the ending worse is that it means that movie isn't really saying very much at all- for most of the way, it looks deeper than it actully is.
What the movie does have in its favor is its tone- we really share this guy's nearly apoclalyptic state of mind. The low-saturated colors and unidentified setting help make the film feel like an Edgar Allen Poe short story. Also of note is Christian Bale- he lost a huge amount weight for the role (allmovie says he weighed only 126 pounds at time of of filming) and makes Peter Cushing look fat. I gasped when I saw him shirtless at the begnning of the film, and it wasn't because he's hunky.
I hope that this review has sucessfully described the merits of this picture - it's not an intellecutal experince, but a visceral one. This is the sort of movie that will appeal to a very specific audince, but one that will hopefully be able to identify what kind of films they like. As for me, I found the movie's atmosphere to be effective- but not enough for me to want to see it again.
The Machinist (2003)