A dark secret exposed to the light of truth

Rating: 7/10 (12 February 2005)

**SPOILER ALERT** Dark and depressing movie about a guilty past thats above and beyond everything thats done by the person responsible for it; who' been trying to suppress it for over a year. Not being able to sleep or eat properly Trevor Reznik, Christian Bale,has dropped to under 120 lbs. from his normal 180 lbs. six foot two inch,frame looking like he's a concentration camp survivor.
Working at the machine plant one day Trevor is spotted by Ivan, John Sharian, who seems to know a lot about him and tells Trevor that he works with him at the plant. Never seeing Ivan in his life, much less at work, this plays on Trevor's mind to the point where he asks his fellow workers who this Ivan is. Trevor is told that one one ever saw him on the work-floor or even knew him.
One day at work helping fellow worker Miller, Michael Ironsides, with the machinery Trevor sees Ivan who for some reason gave him the slit throat sign.Trevor is so startled by seeing him he backs up hitting the activator button on the machine that Miller was working on causing him to lose his left arm.
Even though Trevor is exonerated for the accident that cost Miller his arm, and even Miller forgave him for what happened, no one at the factory wants to work with Trevor. Trevor still holds,not just himself responsible for Millers loss, that Ivan had something to do with the accident and wants to find Ivan who he feels is somehow trying to do him in, but why?
This Ivan is a very odd duck looking like Marlon Brando's portrayal of Col. Walter E. Kurtz in the movie "Apocalypes Now" with two of his toes grafted on his left hand to replace two missing fingers,looking like claws. He not only keeps popping up in Trevors life but has a connection with a number of people that Travor knows like Reynolds, who Ivan said that he replaced in "The Pit", in the plant. Ivan also knows Stevie,Jennifer Jason Leigh, a hooker who Travor's frequents. Trevor found that out through a photo that he took from Ivan's wallet as if Ivan left it at the bar on purpose for Travor's to steal it from him that he found in Stevies apartment. Ivan's wallet also contains a photo of Reynolds, who claimed that he never knew Ivan, on it together with Ivan showing off a catch that they had while out fishing!
The story gets even weirder when Trevor's girlfriend Marie,Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, a waitress at the airport diner turns out to be a figment of his imagination. Trevor finds that out when he's told by the waitress at the diner that she, like Ivan at the machine plant, never worked there. Trevor knowing Ivan's car license goes so far as to get himself hit by a speeding car so he could report the license plate to the police in a hit and run report. All this to find out if this Ivan, who's license plate number he gave, is for real only to find out, to his surprise, that the plate number of the car was that of his car that he reported stolen by him last year!
Slowly losing his mind Trevor again sees Ivan's car in the streets one night and follows it to his apartment seeing that he had Marie's young son Nicholas, Matthew Romero-Moore, with him. Following Ivan & Nicholas into the apartment Trevor is told by Ivan that he just murdered the young boy leading Trevor to get into a fight with him slitting his throat; like the death sigh that Ivan gave him at the factory earlier in the film, killing him.
Wraping up Ivan's body in a rug and taking it out at night to dispose it into the ocean Trevor finds out to his surprise that there's no body in the rug and that there never was any Ivan, he only existed in poor Trevor's sick and disturbed mind! It's then when everything that was safely hidden in the dark reaches of Trevor's mind started to reveal itself to him as he realized what he did and that he had to pay for his crime. It's then that Trevor finally made peace with himself as he gave himself up to the police to face the bar of justice.
Very weird movie who's confusing story is more then made up by it's powerful surprise ending that ties all the loose ends together for those of us who were still around watching it.