Moody and atmospheric, but ultimately predictable

Rating: 6/10 (27 September 2008)

The Machinist gives us the story of a man who hasn't slept in over a year. He's losing weight, his health is declining, and there's the possibility he's losing his sanity.
Christian Bale is excellent as the emaciated machinist, Trevor Reznik. The amount of weight he lost for this role is truly shocking. He lives in a dark, depressing world, in which he is (literally) slowly disappearing. Eventually he starts seeing strange things: A creepy coworker no one else can see. A waitress and her child who might not even exist. Cryptic notes are left on his refrigerator at home. Is he the victim of a conspiracy, or is he losing his mind?
The film attempts to weave a complex plot that keeps us guessing by blurring fantasy and reality. The Machinist falls in the same genre as Fight Club, Donnie Darko and Mulholland Drive. However, while those excellent movies gave us complex characters and intricate plots, there's not much mysterious about The Machinist. Most seasoned movie-watchers will guess that Reznik is living in a fantasy world fairly quickly. There's no real shock or surprise at the conclusion. We've seen this done before in better films.
I won't give an exact spoiler detailing what has caused Reznik's psychological break from reality. Rest assured, it's fairly trite and expected. This is essentially a morality tale about lingering guilt and eventually doing the right thing. For a film with an artistic, independent attitude, The Machinist is little more than a formulaic psychological thriller. Director Brad Anderson is clearly talented and this movie almost worked brilliantly. It just needed a little more complexity in character development and plot to truly engage (and surprise) the audience. After well over an hour of building suspense, one is left disappointed by the mundane conclusion.