Totally overrated.

Rating: 6/10 (21 January 2006)

Everyone and his mother have made such a big deal about the no-food diet Christian Bale went through to prepare for his role in the Machinist, and I, admittedly was sort of pumped and psyched to see this mad tale.. But, just like in Brad Anderson's previous film, the godawful "Session 9", this seems to be a whole lot of hype about nothing.
While I appreciated the story, and liked Bale's character a lot, this movie essentially was a lot of bunk, tied together very VERY loosely at the ends, but leaving a lot of strings dangling that you have to figure out for yourself. I mean, I like a good psychological thriller that keeps you guessing until the end of why things were happening the way they were (eg, The Sixth Sense was brilliant at this) but when the Big Explanation comes at the end of The Machinist, I was left with the expression of "HUH?" that totally didn't solve anything, and making me dislike the movie more every time I think about it.