The Machinist

dria and I watched “The Machinist” last night, the directorial debut of Brad Anderson. Borrowing perhaps too much from influences “Memento” and “Insomnia”, the movie feels a fair bit like those other, probably better psychological thrillers. That is not to say that The Machinist is without its own merits, though - there are some good scenes and decent performances here.

Christian Bale plays Trevor Reznik, an emaciated machinist who has a relationship with a call-girl (Jennifer Jason Leigh who seems to have stopped clenching her teeth so much) and a late night ritual with a waitress at an airport coffee shop. There’s obviously something wrong with Bale’s character. People tell him he looks terrible, keep asking him if he’s on drugs and he apparently doesn’t sleep. He has obsessive compulsive behaviors and seems to suffer from a lack of short-term memory. Reznik confiding to Leigh’s character in bed: “I haven’t slept in a year,” offers the first clue to the character’s deep issues.

Ok, you’re given all of this in the first fifteen minutes of the movie. The director uses a sticky-notes device that I’m not sure I’ve seen before in a movie but is reminiscent of the tattoos in Memento. Reznik uses these to remind himself of his important tasks (”Buy more bleach”) and Anderson uses them to give us a glimpse into Reznik’s fraying mind.

A word about Christian Bale: He’s a really good actor. Also, I’m a little worried about him. In every movie I’ve seen him in, he’s commenting about the various struggles he goes through to “get in shape for the role”. Let’s see, chronologically, these are, with paraphrased comments from Bale: American Psycho (2000) / “I had to be really ripped to play Patrick Bateman”, Reign of Fire (2002) / “I lost a lot of weight for this because we were supposed to be these starving survivors, then tried to put on more weight so I could convincingly beat up McConaughey”, then Equilibrium (2002) for which he appeared to bulk up more, then this movie (released 2004) in which he looks like he weighs about 120 pounds. I’m all for method acting and getting into a role, but man, … dude! Think of your health! Bale is alarmingly thin in this movie. Now, 1 year later, he’s huge again for Batman Begins. wtf?

I liked this movie. Dria was predictably squeamish but toughed it out and admitted it was “not bad”. The supporting cast (Michael Ironside, John Sharian, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon) were good and carried the movie through the weaker spots. With the “psychological-thriller” genre you’re always watching for the little clues that the writer and director sprinkle through the movie. There are red herrings and there are real clues. This was no different and the outcome was not that surprising, although it did manage to be interesting, even if you knew what was coming.

***/*****