Great psychological thriller

Rating: 7/10 (12 September 2005)

It kept my husband and me and guessing throughout, and the denouement hit us between the eyes. "The Machinist" didn't have quite the impact of "The Sixth Sense", but we were intrigued with the story and spellbound by the title character's depressing state of events. The movie was well crafted. It has great art direction, using color in an unusual way: some black & white and some "tinted" scenes and some in full color. The actors did a good job, and the star should get an award for losing so much weight to portray a skeletal man in torment. Although I never read "The Idiot," I presume there are several parallels between the film and the Russian novel. I should have looked for more info on the DVD before I sealed it up and dropped it in the mailbox to be returned to Blockbuster.com. It's also the sort of film one should watch a second time, after fully understanding what's been going on--with an insider's view, as it were.