The Machinist

Ratings: 7.0/10

Film Class: C+

Genre: Suspense

A machinist who hasn't slept for a year begins to doubt his own sanity when he starts seeing things that no one else can and begins suspecting everyone around him. I can't help but compare this movie to Memento. Memento was one of the top provocative movies I've watched and so far, no other movie has been able to top that. The Machinist brings a similar flaire and genre, promising a ending with a twist to it.

The cinematography was intentionally and aptly dull, and the undertone colors brought out the raw character of the main protagonist, Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale). What was possibly the main reason why I decided to catch this rather unknown 2004 film is that it featured an anorexic Christian Bale... a jaw dropping skeleton-like character. Trivia has it that he lost a record breaking 63 pounds (about 29kg) just for this movie.

Taking that "Wow" factor aside, the storyline, while novel and provocative, didn't inflict that much of an impact to me. The ending was good, and though the trailer might have given the main twist away, it makes a good thought-provoking movie for anyone out there who's sick of slapstick comedies and wanna veer away from that genre for a bit. On the contrary, it seems watching excessive amounts of movies of such genres tend to condition me to predict a normally unexpected ending even before it comes, taking away whatever appeal it has left for a movie which highly depends on that aspect for its success.