Film Reviews

The Machinist

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Aitana Sanchez-Gijon
• Details: US/ 99 mins/(16A).

Christian Bale takes method acting to whole new extremes as he sheds four and a half stone from his frame to play Trevor Reznick, a blue-collar machinist plagued by insomnia. Unable to sleep properly for almost a year, the deeply lonely Reznick is tormented by his colleagues after a momentarily lapse of concentration causes fellow worker, Miller (B movie stalwart Michael Ironside) to lose an arm. Since his only emotional release is a world-weary but kind-hearted prostitute (Jennifer Jason-Leigh), Reznick's world slips into further decline when he's confronted by a burly stranger called Ivan (John Sharian), who seems to know more about the machinist's life than he does himself.
Several years ago Brad Anderson directed a compelling psychological thriller called Session 9 and he repeats the trick with the clinical and unsettling The Machinist. Displaying a true stylist's eye, Anderson makes full use of a palette of washed out colours and stark backdrops to create an unnerving atmosphere, exacerbated by the hollow, skeleton-like figure of Bale. Even if his visual finesse cannot be faulted, Anderson doesn't always maintain the same steely grip on his narrative - the material flagging significantly for a period deep in the second half as the film threatens to peter out in an inconsequential and obvious fashion. That he manages to re-connect with The Machinist and brings the material to such a clever resolution means that this collected director is certainly one to keep an eye on in the future. In the meantime, let's hope Bale remembers to eat breakfast.

Review by Garreth Murphy