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The Machinist

How to describe this movie… weird, very weird. Trevor Reznik, played by Christian Bale, is a man that is withering away, literally. He hasn’t slept in a year and his body is a shell of its former self. He keeps losing weight and losing the battle against sanity. He nods off for seconds at a time, but never more than that. His co-workers suspect that he’s on drugs, and his behavior at times would lead anyone to agree with them.

The film gets going when Reznik, a drill press operator at a machine shop, meets Ivan (played by John Sharian), a bald, beefy redneck with toes surgically grafted onto one of his hands, who will remind you off Marlon Brando’s character from Apocalypse Now. Ivan claims he’s just been hired, but nobody seems to know anything about him. His red car certainly stands out, as it’s practically the only object in the movie that isn’t gray. Ivan seems amiable enough at first, but the next day at the office, he manages to distract Reznik to the point of making him cause a major accident, amputating the arm of a co-worker played by Michael Ironside. The problem for Reznik is that no one else saw Ivan, or even believes he exists. Could this be a Tyler Durden situation all over again? If you remember Edward Norton’s major affliction in Fight Club was also insomnia.

Well, one thing leads to another and Reznik gets crazier and crazier, with Ivan there every step of the way, until all the pieces come together to show you that Reznik is indeed crazy. You can tell that my heart isn’t into writing a lengthy review and it’s because I just don’t care for it. Christian Bale was great in the role, having lost a lot of weight for this movie, but it just didn’t do it for me. I found it to move very slowly and at times I was looking for something to do.

Review

40%

The Machinist
40%

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