Before Batman, Christian Bale bored us in this cerebral "thriller"
BY EMIL TIEDEMANN
It may have been because director Brad Anderson (Session 9) helmed most of the film lying in a gurney after suffering from a back injury during filming, or perhaps it was star Christian Bale (as Trevor Reznik) remaining almost at a stand-still with his character's inability to evoke any emotions other than exhaustion and paranoia. Whatever the reason, the Spanish-made psychological thriller The Machinist fell flat, nearly overshadowing its own plot with Bales' unavoidable physique, a mere ghost of himself, shedding a reported 62 pounds and reducing his mass to 120.
Evidently, Bale had planned on dropping yet another 20 pounds, but the filmmakers quickly put a stop to it, concerned over the insistent method actor's health. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not pointing any fingers at Bale (I heard he has a temper!), because I'm sure he forfilled his part to a tee, but Reznik's chronic insomnia nearly put me to sleep. In fact, Bale's sacrificial performance was committedly daunting, reminding me of a recent movie that asked as much from its star Michael Fassbender, who also went on a crash diet for his role in Hunger (2008).
Reznik (a tip of the hat to Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor) is a machinist--go figure--who hasn't been able to fall asleep in about a year. He leads a lonely existance, estranged from his past, scrapping by on the part-time affection of a discerning call girl named Stevie (Single White Female's Jennifer Jason Leigh) and the imagined chit-chat of an airport waitress named Maria (A Walk in the Clouds' Aitana Sanchez-Gijon).
The frail machinist corrodes into a paraniod state of confusion, starving himself for reasons unbeknown to us until...well never, really! I never fully understood the point of Reznik's hunger strike, even after the film untangled itself at the very end, explaining Reznik's behaviour as the result of a hit-and-run that ate at him, quite literally.
The Machinist ended--finally--when Reznik confessed what he had buried beneath layers of denial and a puzzling eating disorder, all of which piled into one big ball of shit that sunk him into a comatose mess, parallel with Anderson's irksome effort.
The tipping point was that I had actually recently watched The Machinist before, but I had perceptibly erased it from my memory, just like Reznik does with his vehicular manslaughter. In fact, as every scene kicked in I had no idea what was going to happen, barely recognizing the storyline as it ploddingly flowed, despite a prior viewing that obviously left no impression on me. Add in a pesky score that did no favours for the film, and The Machinist lost itself early off, too concerned with shocking its audience.
2/5 stars
BY EMIL TIEDEMANN
It may have been because director Brad Anderson (Session 9) helmed most of the film lying in a gurney after suffering from a back injury during filming, or perhaps it was star Christian Bale (as Trevor Reznik) remaining almost at a stand-still with his character's inability to evoke any emotions other than exhaustion and paranoia. Whatever the reason, the Spanish-made psychological thriller The Machinist fell flat, nearly overshadowing its own plot with Bales' unavoidable physique, a mere ghost of himself, shedding a reported 62 pounds and reducing his mass to 120.Evidently, Bale had planned on dropping yet another 20 pounds, but the filmmakers quickly put a stop to it, concerned over the insistent method actor's health. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not pointing any fingers at Bale (I heard he has a temper!), because I'm sure he forfilled his part to a tee, but Reznik's chronic insomnia nearly put me to sleep. In fact, Bale's sacrificial performance was committedly daunting, reminding me of a recent movie that asked as much from its star Michael Fassbender, who also went on a crash diet for his role in Hunger (2008).
Reznik (a tip of the hat to Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor) is a machinist--go figure--who hasn't been able to fall asleep in about a year. He leads a lonely existance, estranged from his past, scrapping by on the part-time affection of a discerning call girl named Stevie (Single White Female's Jennifer Jason Leigh) and the imagined chit-chat of an airport waitress named Maria (A Walk in the Clouds' Aitana Sanchez-Gijon).
The frail machinist corrodes into a paraniod state of confusion, starving himself for reasons unbeknown to us until...well never, really! I never fully understood the point of Reznik's hunger strike, even after the film untangled itself at the very end, explaining Reznik's behaviour as the result of a hit-and-run that ate at him, quite literally.
The Machinist ended--finally--when Reznik confessed what he had buried beneath layers of denial and a puzzling eating disorder, all of which piled into one big ball of shit that sunk him into a comatose mess, parallel with Anderson's irksome effort.The tipping point was that I had actually recently watched The Machinist before, but I had perceptibly erased it from my memory, just like Reznik does with his vehicular manslaughter. In fact, as every scene kicked in I had no idea what was going to happen, barely recognizing the storyline as it ploddingly flowed, despite a prior viewing that obviously left no impression on me. Add in a pesky score that did no favours for the film, and The Machinist lost itself early off, too concerned with shocking its audience.
2/5 stars
10 comments:
Bale's character had severe, chronic depression due to the vehicular manslaughter, sypmtoms of depressioncan manifest itself in loss of appetite, insomnia, and other physical symptoms, hence we have the skeleton of Bale playing a character.
So we need to be psych majors in order to understand this movie? That aside, the film was still slow, boring, and the music annoyed me...so there!
Whatever, just because you didn't understand it!
Besides, it showed Bale eating more than once (including fried chicken), which means he threw up?! That would mean he had an eating disorder, as oppose to not being able to eat.
I only remember him eating the chicken...he attempts to eat pie but pushes it away.
by pie, do you mean pie? Or something else?!
The pie he orders from the airport terminal place.
I know, I was kidding...nevermind! lol
so the movie went over your head and just because u have some un-answered questions u say its a bad movie with a weak performance by bale? weak performance on the review son. bale did good and the movie is deep.
If you read the review completely, the unanswered questions was not the only reason I didn't like this movie (even though it was a big unanswered question!)...it was dull and boring...that's just my opinion though. Bale was good, but the script didn't exactly let him stretch much...
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