The best Hitchcock since "Psycho".

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2004)

Having been a huge fan of his breakthrough hit "Next Stop Wonderland", I had high hopes for Brad Anderson's latest work, which I was fortunate enough to have seen at the Sundance Film Festival last week. However, I was not ready for the pleasant surprise that this exceptional psychological thriller would deliver.
From the first frame I was on the edge of my seat, my brain working overtime to try and figure out what was happening and where things were going, all the while enjoying the crazy ride I was on and the unbelievable performance of Christian Bale who I understand lost 65 pounds to play the role of our sad protagonist Trevor Reznik.
Anderson's storytelling chops have never been so finely tuned as in "Machinist". He never lets go of the audience and paces things so well you don't care how long it takes to get to your destination YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHERE THIS THING IS GOING! And the climax delivers without the slightest sense of disappointment and/or abruptness that even many of the great master's films did in the last act.
I haven't stopped thinking about this film since the curtain came up and it's probably because I've never been so spellbound (pun intended) perhaps since "Memento". Though "The Machinist" may not be as ORIGINAL a concept as that other film, in every other way it matches and/or surpasses it and, unlike "Memento" it has no gaping holes in its logic.
Go see this movie and see if you're as blown away as we all were at the World Premiere in Park City.