Excellent psychological thriller

Rating: Null/10 (4 May 2015)

One of Christian Bale's more interesting roles and a film with a well-deserved good reputation. A story about one Trevor Reznik (Bale), an insomniac factory worker who moves through his life in a constant daze, a mere shadow of his former self. A continuous cloud hangs over his life and even sources of joy are filtered through a dark gloom. And then things start to go wrong.
The Machinist works partly because of Bale's excellent performance and partly because it knows how to build and maintain suspense. Bale lost a considerable amount of weight for the movie, unhealthily so, but it cannot be said that it doesn't add something to the movie when you can count every single bone in his body through his pallid skin. A haunting visual and a haunting performance as Trevor starts to slowly question his very existence.
The plot is also interesting, though it bears some resemblance to movies like Memento, another Bale movie. Not that it's a bad thing and the end twist is still original enough not to disappoint, but the similarities are striking.
Not much else can be said about the movie without spoiling it, so I'll finish by saying that it's a movie well worth a watch for fans of thrillers. Recommended.