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The Machinist

2004

Brad Anderson

Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Michael Ironside, John Sharian

7.1

55,593

Thriller. Drama Trevor Reznik is a lathe-operator who suffers from insomnia and hasn't slept in a year. Slowly, he begins to doubt his sanity as increasingly bizarre things start happening at work and at home. Haunted by a deformed co-worker who no one seems to think exists, and an ongoing stream of indecipherable Post-It notes he keeps finding on his fridge, he attempts to investigate what appears to be a mysterious plot against him and, in the ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Todd McCarthy Variety	"A waking nightmare (...) with echoes of Hitchcock, Lynch, Kafka and Dostoyevsky"	POS
United States	Michael O'Sullivan The Washington Post	"Psychological suspense at its finest (...) The film feels at times like you're dreaming it, rather than watching it"	POS
United States	Stephen Holden The New York Times	"May be an expertly manipulated exercise in psychological horror, but that's all it is. Don't look for the kind of metaphoric weight you'd find in a movie by David Lynch or David Fincher."	NEU
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"Brad Anderson tightens the screws of suspense, but it's Bale's gripping, beyond-the-call-of-duty performance that holds you in thrall.(...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Ty Burr Boston Globe	"A stylish but fatally shallow puzzler that suggests a 'Twilight Zone' episode filmed on the leftover sets of 'Seven'"	NEU
United States	Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"Brad Anderson wants to convey a state of mind, and he and Bale do that with disturbing effectiveness (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United Kingdom	Geoff Andrew Time Out	"A bit messy; though it almost makes some kind of psychological sense, it never really persuades as an authentic portrait of a tormented mind."	NEU
United States	Stephanie Zacharek Salon	"Bale gives a remarkable performance in a movie I can recommend to no one, because the sight of him is more distressing than any of the allegedly deep themes of the picture"	NEU

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