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Movies / On DVD / The Machinist
The Machinist

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The Machinist (2004)

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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.

Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins

Genre: Dramas

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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Reviews for The Machinist

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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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.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Anderson struggles to maintain an emotional connection, but he crafts a remarkably sure-handed little thriller.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
11/04/04
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

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.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
04/01/06
Ian Nathan
Ian Nathan
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

You'll join the dots in Anderson's thriller within the first five minutes - a real crying shame since Bale deserved much more for his pound -- or 63 -- of flesh.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
01/26/05
Jamie Russell
Jamie Russell
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The performances are nothing short of superb - Bale's skeletal form alone is likely to be the most haunting visual image of the year.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
03/19/05
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

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...

Full Review Source: Sight and Sound | comment Comment
03/01/05
Ben Walters
Ben Walters
Sight and Sound

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.

Full Review Source: Perihelion Journal | comment Comment
08/27/06
Jay Antani
Jay Antani
Perihelion Journal

replacing phrase "going De Niro" with the phrase "going Bale" in many vocabularies

Full Review Source: Draxblog Movie Reviews | comment Comment
07/12/05
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
Draxblog Movie Reviews

Mark Twain said that Wagner's music isn't as bad as it sounds. The Machinist isn't as good as it looks. But Bale's fever-dream performance is otherworldly great.

Full Review Source: Seattle Weekly | comment Comment
03/09/05
Tim Appelo
Tim Appelo
Seattle Weekly

Bale is totally convincing, if not especially endearing, as the sleep-challenged title character. If it's true that Oscar can't resist a likable actor in a self-punishing role, this one is going to be hard to top come February.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
12/02/04
William Arnold
William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

A relentless and painful reminder of concentration camp terrors and famine relief operations.

Full Review Source: Palo Alto Weekly | comment Comment
11/22/04
Jeanne Aufmuth
Jeanne Aufmuth
Palo Alto Weekly

Christian Bale delivers one of the most astounding performances of the year in this exceptionally written psychological thriller. **

Full Review Source: Sympatico.ca | comment Comment
11/15/04
Angela Baldassarre
Angela Baldassarre
Sympatico.ca

It would be easy to accuse Bale of a warped kind of egomania if his performance wasn't so mesmerizing.

Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | comment Comment
11/29/04
Joe Baltake
Joe Baltake
Sacramento Bee

Anderson definitely has a flair for creating a diffuse sense of fear, paranoia, and mental illness onscreen.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
11/28/04
Marjorie Baumgarten
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle

Anderson builds up suspense quite brilliantly, using a deliberate pace that draws the viewer into Trevor's strange world.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
09/11/04
Lewis Beale
Lewis Beale
Film Journal International

The film is admirably atmospheric but it ultimately loses its nerve and is revealed as just another comforting lesson in redemption.

Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) | comment Comment
12/10/04
John Beifuss
John Beifuss
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

Trevor Reznik. Machinist. Insomniac. A man wracked with guilt who can only find redemption ... in the Twilight Zone.

Full Review Source: Las Vegas Weekly | comment Comment
11/25/04
Josh Bell
Josh Bell
Las Vegas Weekly

Although The Machinist may at times seem to be derivative of those films, and is inferior to them, it is nevertheless a harrowing experience for those to whom this sort of story appeals.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
10/19/04
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

Christian Bale gives his best by giving less in this nightmare tale of a machinist who is one tool short of the full set.

Full Review Source: Movie Gazette | comment Comment
03/26/05
Anton Bitel
Anton Bitel
Movie Gazette

A foreboding, noir-bending film of visceral, internalized tension and confusion.

Full Review Source: SPLICEDWire | comment Comment
11/24/04
Rob Blackwelder
Rob Blackwelder
SPLICEDWire
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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