The Machinist (2004).

[Neville]

What?
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"The Maquinist" is the latest film from Brad Anderson, director of "Session 9". Shot in Spain, it stars a depaupered Christian Bale as a factory worker who may be losing his mind after a gruesome accident which caused another worker to lose his hand. It also stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Michael Ironside.

Is it any good?
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Yes. Anderson's work distiles a nightmarish atmosphere and a dark sense of humour, while the impersonal settings and abrupt editing manage to create the illusion of being inside somebody's head. While "Session 9" looked extremely realistic, here Anderson's images have a convincing tone of unreality. Bale is also extraordinary in his role.

But not everything is that good. The script by Scott Tosar feels a bit amateurish at times. There are some annoying reiterations and the ending might leave many people more confused than surprised.

If you watch "The Machinist", try to keep present that this film is not a horror movie, at least not a traditional one. There are zero scares and sometimes it gives you the feeling that Anderson is keeping his feet away of the accelerator when it comes to tension. This film seems conceived more as a drama, as the portrait of a person in an extreme situation, and it is in these aspects that the movie works best.

You can watch the trailer here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361862/trailers

[Mr_Vindictive]

I was seriously looking forward to this flick after first hearing about it, but it never played near me.

I love Anderson's style.  He has made everything from a great romantic comedy to one of the absolute best horror films to come out in two decades.

[Master Blaster]

I had to head to the only "artsy" theatre we have here to see it. The whole time some stoned idiots giggling at things that were'nt funny right behind me. I wish it was illegal to be stupid.  

Still, as been said before, a good movie regardless of the weak script.

[trekgeezer]

My nephew loaned me his DVD, so I finally got to watch The Machinist.  A friend at work told me she had got it through Netflix, but couldn't bear to watch it because of Christian Bales appearance.  I had heard the film makers made him stop losing weight because they feared the permanent repercussions to his health. 


It is a slow moving movie, but it is engaging (my wife stayed awake through the whole thing).  Bale does a great job with the character, especially after his psychosis starts unraveling.

The one thought the movie left me with was, could the law possibly do anything worse to him than he had done to himself?

[dean]

I gotta say I watched this one without knowing much about it, so I'm reasonably pleased.  The film looked great, Bale looked very nuts and it had a general good tone about it.

BUT

I gotta say I have some bad issues with the screenplay.  Watching the writer on the DVD extras just confirmed for me further that he is essentially a douchebag.  In my eyes at least.

Especially the ending, which lets face it, is a huge rip off: there were a lot of stylistic choices and ideas taken directly from this rip off, and this made the film go from a pretty good film to an interesting watch that skirted class.  I won't mention the film it takes off, but to those who watch it will know what I'm talking about.

I'm not even talking about just the ending either: after watching the ending I felt that the whole thing was a cheap mans, well, cheap mans version of the film I mean.


Still, I didn't notice this until the end, and it kept my attention well enough.

[SynapticBoomstick]

I thought this film was very well done  The way it unfolded and wound around itself was very intricate and the whole atmosphere of the machine shop and surround town was very dreary and washed out, a good ambient representation of Bale's sleeplessness.

I'm not a critic, not much to say other than I liked the movie, only saw it once

[ulthar]

I really enjoyed THE MACHINIST, and it having been a while since I've seen it, I find it's after effect rather haunting.  It remains perhaps my favorite Christian Bale movie so far.

My earlier comments here.

[Sister Grace]

I loved the Machinist. I really dug the way it was harsh and even sometimes brutal. The underlying sexual tones throughout the movie were done really well too. Alot of people complain about its repetitiveness. I believe it was necessary in order to get across the depth of Bale's psychosis.

[CheezeFlixz]

Fun someone give me this very movie yesterday.

Guess I need to watch it now.

[xupernaut]

 Not a 1/2 bad flick.Pretty disturbing how Christian Bale looks in it.