Christian Bale's acting in this movie is superb. The opening of the movie is very minimalistic, in both plot and setting. Reznik, the machine operator played by Christian Bale, is suffering from severe insomnia, hence weight loss (btw. Christian Bale allegedly only ate an apple + coffee + small can of tuna every day to get the disturbingly skinny look in the movie). “Haven't slept for a year”, Reznik told the hooker in the movie. Besides, Reznik is obsessed with cleaning, eg he washed his hands with bleach, scrub the bathroom floor religiously, keep his belongings to the bare minimum. These clues serve as proper predictors for the unfolding of the plot: 1) Reznik must be ridden with guilt, which he consciously or unconsciously dodges, hence the bleaching and scrbing;2) the almost humanly impossible lack of sleep would eventually create something funky in Reznik's mind and his life. The guilt, which is the deeper reason of Reznik's insomnia, would permeate through cracks of his life, personality, and unconsciousness (which is the best arsenal of psychological thriller), and funky illusion would thus arise. The cinematography certainly did a good job conveying a gloomy, dark, twisted, yet mythical mood for the movie. No warm or fuzzy feeling whatsoever. This movie is a phsycho thriller version of Rashomon, in the sense that the same incident morphed into different versions when told from memory. It turned out Reznik killed a boy in a hit-and-run accident. He was trying to forget the accident, but his guilt stopped him from leading a normal life: his relationship fell apart, he suffered from insomnia,weight loss, and he fucked up his work. Yet he still tried his best to deny the existent of the accident. To compensate for the void, he shuffled the characters involved in the accident in his mind, and created a whole new story for them , so he would erase the accident from his memory, convince himself, and justify everything. The screen writer did a good job in weaving the justification but still creating the tension between Reznik's real self and the justified self. This tension led Reznik to discover his deeply suppressed guilt, and to recover himself from his willful oblivion and unconsciousness. Finally, he came to the realization that he, Reznik, killed a boy, and the whole year of insomnia is just him trying to forget the killing. He turned himself in , and finally fell asleep in the jail cell.Yet he still tried his best to deny the existent of the accident. To compensate for the void, he shuffled the characters involved in the accident in his mind, and created a whole new story for them, so he would erase the accident from his memory , convince himself, and justify everything. The screen writer did a good job in weaving the justification but still creating the tension between Reznik's real self and the justified self. This tension led Reznik to discover his deeply suppressed guilt, and to recover himself from his willful oblivion and unconsciousness. Finally, he came to the realization that he, Reznik, killed a boy, and the whole year of insomnia is just him trying to forget the killing. He turned himself in, and finally fell asleep in the jail cell.Yet he still tried his best to deny the existent of the accident. To compensate for the void, he shuffled the characters involved in the accident in his mind, and created a whole new story for them, so he would erase the accident from his memory , convince himself, and justify everything. The screen writer did a good job in weaving the justification but still creating the tension between Reznik's real self and the justified self. This tension led Reznik to discover his deeply suppressed guilt, and to recover himself from his willful oblivion and unconsciousness. Finally, he came to the realization that he, Reznik, killed a boy, and the whole year of insomnia is just him trying to forget the killing. He turned himself in, and finally fell asleep in the jail cell.To compensate for the void, he shuffled the characters involved in the accident in his mind, and created a whole new story for them, so he would erase the accident from his memory, convince himself, and justify everything. The screen writer did a good job in weaving the justification but still creating the tension between Reznik's real self and the justified self. This tension led Reznik to discover his deeply suppressed guilt, and to recover himself from his willful oblivion and unconsciousness. Finally, he came to the realization that he , Reznik, killed a boy, and the whole year of insomnia is just him trying to forget the killing. He turned himself in, and finally fell asleep in the jail cell.To compensate for the void, he shuffled the characters involved in the accident in his mind, and created a whole new story for them, so he would erase the accident from his memory, convince himself, and justify everything. The screen writer did a good job in weaving the justification but still creating the tension between Reznik's real self and the justified self. This tension led Reznik to discover his deeply suppressed guilt, and to recover himself from his willful oblivion and unconsciousness. Finally, he came to the realization that he , Reznik, killed a boy, and the whole year of insomnia is just him trying to forget the killing. He turned himself in, and finally fell asleep in the jail cell.so he would erase the accident from his memory, convince himself, and justify everything. The screen writer did a good job in weaving the justification but still creating the tension between Reznik's real self and the justified self. This tension led Reznik to discover his deeply suppressed guilt, and to recover himself from his willful oblivion and unconsciousness. Finally, he came to the realization that he, Reznik, killed a boy, and the whole year of insomnia is just him trying to forget the killing. He turned himself in, and finally fell asleep in the jail cell.so he would erase the accident from his memory, convince himself, and justify everything. The screen writer did a good job in weaving the justification but still creating the tension between Reznik's real self and the justified self. This tension led Reznik to discover his deeply suppressed guilt, and to recover himself from his willful oblivion and unconsciousness. Finally, he came to the realization that he, Reznik, killed a boy, and the whole year of insomnia is just him trying to forget the killing. He turned himself in, and finally fell asleep in the jail cell.and to recover himself from his willful oblivion and unconsciousness. Finally, he came to the realization that he, Reznik, killed a boy, and the whole year of insomnia is just him trying to forget the killing. He turned himself in, and finally fell asleep in the jail cell.and to recover himself from his willful oblivion and unconsciousness. Finally, he came to the realization that he, Reznik, killed a boy, and the whole year of insomnia is just him trying to forget the killing. He turned himself in, and finally fell asleep in the jail cell.
I cannot help but thinking,'why the movie title “The Machinist?” Is it because Reznik lost himself to his memory, illusion and guilt, so he didn't know who he was? The name sort of served as a tagline to point out Reznik's identity? Or it's an allusion to the metaphor of memory as a machine, hence the person “The Machinist”, as well as the machinist's failing attempt to tinker it?
Anyway, in retrospect, I really like how dots are connected in the movie. Natural and seamless. The idea of split personality and illusionary self created in one's own head is nothing new, but the fusing of fragments into an integral yet intriguing whole piece is an art. This movie did a decent job, plus Christian Bale did a very nice job. I would have given the movie a four star, but psychological thriller is really not my favourite genre of film and definitely not my favourite time killer. I actually went to watch an episode of the Big Bang Theory, just to get a dose of nerdy reality.
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