Movie Description
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.
| Credits | | Producer: | Julio Fernandez | | Cast: | John Sharian |
| Details | | Edition: | Special Edition; Canadian |
Editorial Reviews
"[O]ne of the few movies to scale the barrier between chilly fantasy and authentic cinematic nightmare. The actor backs up his stunt with a performance that builds to a pinnacle of savage fury and desperation."
New York Times - Stephen Holden (10/22/2004)
"Bale, always a nervy, risk-taking actor, gives a haunting performance of fierce concentration."
Los Angeles Times - Kevin Thomas (10/22/2004)
"[I]t's Bale's gripping, beyond-the-call-of-duty performance that holds you in thrall."
Rolling Stone - Peter Travers (11/11/2004)
"Director Brad Anderson has crafted a taut psychological thriller with a terrific payoff."
Movieline's Hollywood Life - Stephen Farber (10/01/2004)
"Bale's performance has the emotional weight to substantiate this body-art spectacle..."
Sight and Sound - Ben Walters (03/01/2005)
"Not since MEMENTO has there been such an engrossingly murky enigma of a film....This is a terrific pulp puzzler..."
Uncut - Stephen Dalton (04/01/2005)
Ranked #23 in Uncut's Best Films Of 2005 -- "[E]choes of Dostoevsky, JACOB'S LADDER and MEMENTO only compound the forbidding atmosphere."
Uncut - Uncut Staff (01/01/2006)
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