Dostoevskian Mind Game

Rating: 8/10 (26 September 2019)

"The Machinist" is a puzzle picture or part of what film historian and theorist Thomas Elsaesser classifies as "The Mind-Game Film" within the essay of the same name. As he outlines, these movies play games on two levels: that where a character is being played games upon and that where the audience is the one being toyed with. "The Machinist" is primarily of the latter, but employs the former in constructing the puzzle for us. Elsaesser goes on to list six common motifs regarding the unstable minds of the protagonists in these movies; "The Machinist" checks off every box: 1) he experiences events whose meaning or consequences escape him, including through a non-linear plot--this one begins near the end of the story, and its beginning is near the end; 2) he's mistaken about the difference between reality and his imagination, and the audience isn't able to tell the difference, either, through any typical subjective filmmaking techniques; 3) he has an imaginary companion (or two); 4) he has an identity crisis--there's even a post-it note in his apartment asking, "Who are you?," which he reads while looking in a mirror; 5) he's not even aware that there is a difference between reality and his imagination until the surprise or twist ending; and 6) he's persuaded that he's deluded about the existence of a child due to a past traumatic event.
Furthermore, those familiar with the novels by Fyodor Dostoevsky--namely, "The Double," "The Idiot" and "Crime and Punishment"--may seek out yet another puzzle--one of reference and adaptation. That's the game I came to this picture to play. Indeed, I've been seeking a bunch of films related to "Crime and Punishment" since reading it, including straightforward adaptations as well as ones such as this that are trickier. My understanding of the other two books is secondhand, though (perhaps someday I'll get to them). Anyways, the mind game here involves the "delusion," or even somewhat of a red herring, that "The Machinist" is about "The Idiot." There's a clear and lingering insert shot that reveals the protagonist, Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale), to be reading this very novel. Note that in films that are not of the mind-game variety, these inclusions of the source text are straightforward--for instance, when Woody Allen put copies of "Crime and Punishment" in "Match Point" (2005) and "Irrational Man" (2015), it's because those movies are specifically about that book.
"The Idiot" is a narrative of innocence and a surprise murder, among other things. The movie begins with Reznik throwing a corpse into the sea. Is he innocent or a murderer is the implied quandary. The epilepsy business here is taken from "The Idiot," too, as well as from Dostoevsky's real-life affliction. Again, here's the allusion to reality and fiction. Next, we move to the game of doppelgängers. "The Double" concerns what it sounds like it concerns: doubles--doppelgängers--duality, as well as the puzzle over reality and fiction it stirs up. This is from the tradition of German Romanticism and Gothic horror, which continued into the cinema with such films as "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920), arguably among the first mind-game films. "The Machinist" is full of doubling: in addition to Reznik's imaginary companions, he sees two women, there are two sets of mothers and sons, he causes two accidents, he's involved in two arms stuck in machines, he reports two hit and runs to the police. This doubling is the unraveling of the delusion, the puzzle. (And was anyone else reminded of "The Matrix" (1999) here, what with a guy who in the shadows wearing shades almost looks like Laurence Fishburne and the repeated choice between two tunnels akin to two pills for Neo?)
He's not the tormented but innocent Prince from "The Idiot," nor does he suffer an evil twin--although he may end up where those characters do in the end; it turns out, Reznik is Raskolnikov. It's written right there, too, behind him on his tour through the Route 666 amusement-park ride: "Crime and Punishment." Moreover, there's the prostitute-with-the-heart-of-gold Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who like Sonya from the book leads Reznik/Raskolnikov on the path of regeneration. She sees and informs him that he's the one in the picture. Stripping Dostoevsky's tale of its motivations, politics and philosophy and even its dreams (for Reznik cannot sleep), what's left is the redemptive quality of one's conscience--of guilt. That's the punishment. He's saved (for Dostoevsky, this was intrinsically linked with Christianity), he may sleep, when he confesses and pays for his crime. The ending here is taken directly from "Crime and Punishment" (before the epilogue, but even routine film adaptations rarely include that, either). Whereas Raskolnikov looked across the street to see that Sonya had followed him to the police station, Reznik sees his dopplegänger. He makes the surprise admission to the police officer and finds relief in prison.
I'm tempted to try to find a connection here between Bale ending "The Machinist" in prison and beginning his next picture, "Batman Begins" (2005), there, and how he went from extreme weight loss here ("If you were any thinner, you wouldn't exist." Hey, "déjà vu," another doubling.) to superheroic fitness there--besides it all being part of his dangerous devotion to method acting. Regardless, it's doubtless that his performance here is impressive. The spectacle of his body, however, is interesting in itself, and the film spends a considerable amount of time focusing on it. Of course, narratively, this is a manifestation of Reznik's guilt--like his insomnia and other abnormal behaviors. It also seems somewhat contrary to the mind-game film. Elsaesser suggests a difference between the genre, or cinematic tendency, and traditional films that place the spectator in the relatively passive position of voyeur--considering the mind-game film as a reaction for more audience engagement. Thus, this invitation to gaze upon Bale's body stands in contradiction, or it may be the last piece of the puzzle left to solve.