The first rule of a hit and run is you will not talk about hit and runs. The second rule of a hit and run is you will not talk about hit and runs. The third rule of a hit and run is you will hit one person at any one time. Sorry, watching The Machinist just brought some familiar themes to mind. You’ll understand once you watch it too.
Trevor (Christian Bale) plays a freakily thin machinist (shock!) in a factory. I wasn’t quite sure what they made, but all we know is different people work different machines and what they make is neither here or nor there. Trevor hasn’t slept in over a year, and the result of this is delusions, paranoia and mistakes in the factory. One of these accidents causes Miller (Michael Ironside) to lose his arm. Trevor blames the incident on being distracted by an individual named Ivan he met the day before, but it turns out no one knows of such a person.
Positive that Ivan is after him, and that others are in on a conspiracy to get him, and to pay him back for accident he caused, Trevor tries to fifure out the said plot against him. Every morning he checks his weight, only to note that he keeps losing weight, to the point where he’s starting to looking like a visitor from Somalia. What disturbs more, however, is a note on his fridge that offers a game of hang man and a clue to those after him.
The Machinist has to be credited for trying something different. Well it would be different if other films of schizophrenia hadn’t appeared prior to this. You may think I’ve spoilt the film for you, but honestly, not watching this film will not spoil a single thing. The performances are far below average and totally uninteresting.
Jennifer Jason Leigh is perhaps best remembered as Marty McFly’s girlfriend, and here plays a sympathetic prostitute who has a fondness for Trever. Wht a difference a few decades make and she seems to have grown a pair of perky breasts. It’s just a shame that her chest outperforms her acting ability as the better co-star to Bale.
Bale himself is rather lost and souless. He performs well enough, but often doesnt’ convince the audience that he isn’t talking to himself. Far too many clues are offered intitially to make the whole experience of watching the movie about as mysterious as a birthday party for yourself that has been announced on the tannoy. They may as well given the audience the ending, and then provided them with a choice of either finding out how Bale gets from A to B, or to go home. There’s always the stop button on the DVD, however, and I would recommend it.
Atmosphere is non-existent, and if the implications is that a dirty, dark and morbid looking apartment is going to send chills down your spine, then the film makers obviously have a long way to go before they even understand the concept of tension or fear. Both are obviously absent, and are replaced with boredom and stating-the-bloody-obvious.
The highlight of the film is perhaps how far Bale went to lose weight for such a mediocre film. Credit to Bale for willing to go the extra mile to look like an advert for Oxfam, but it all seems to have been a fruitless exercise in a movie where the film could have been put to better use in the red light district. At the very least, that would provide some mild titilation, instead of the dross tragedy The Machinist is.
It’s possible the film was completed within 10 minutes, and then the director thought, “Ok, that’s the plot done, now we need fillers”. Herrings are thrown into the picture, but they’re about as distracting as a four legged dog, you’ve seen one pbvious herring you’ve seen them all. I hated having to watch this, though I wasn’t forced. After watching it you feel like punching Bale in the face for starring in it, and stranging the director for getting away with having it released.
Verdict: Unoriginal, woeful performances, a plot lost in the post and a film that would serve better as a beer coaster