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| Trevor Reznik is suffering from serious insomnia, and it's not long before his lack of sleep causes him to have an accident at work. Rather than his co-workers rallying around him, however, they instantly turn against him, and events only get stranger...
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 |  | "A little guilt goes a long way..."
A hypnotic thriller blending elements of Kafka and Hitchcock to disturb and intrigue its audience, The Machinist is a powerful, distinctive film showcasing the talents of director Brad Anderson and Batman Begins star Christian Bale, who lost a staggering 63lbs to play Trevor Reznik, a scarecrow of a man plagued by insomnia, memory loss and paranoia.
"I wanted to tell Trevor’s story in such a way that it would bring the audience directly into his head," clarifies Anderson, "and give them a glimpse of the nightmarish way he perceives his world. I wanted the movie to feel out of time, other-worldly, from a different era or place," he continues. "You can never quite get a grip on where or when in time things are happening and that was intentional. It’s a modern Kafkaesque world, a nightmare dreamscape that draws horror from our everyday existence." Adds screenwriter Scott Kosar, "Stylistically I envisioned The Machinist as ‘the last Hitchcock film ever made.’"
The story of an industrial worker ravaged by a year of insomnia, The Machinist delves deeply into Reznik’s mind as it slowly unravels, eventually revealing the truth behind his desperate condition. "The film’s style and structure aren’t meant to be gimmicky," explains Anderson. "Rather, I felt this was the best way to tell this story in which you have a man whose conscience is literally consuming him alive, yet he’s not even aware of the crime he’s committed. This sense of mystery, lack of knowledge, paranoia and urgency to understand had to permeate every moment of the film the same way they permeate every moment of Trevor’s existence."
At the heart of this terrifying film is a performance of extraordinary power. "When I first wrote the character," says Kosar, "I assumed Trevor’s shocking weight loss would be done with CGI or cleverly designed costumes. Never in my wildest dreams did I think an actor would go so far as to actually starve himself. But Christian Bale made an astonishing transformation, at great personal risk, to properly capture the horror of Trevor’s life. His commitment to the film was as breathtaking as his portrait."
Adds Brad Anderson, "In Scott’s script, Trevor is described as a walking skeleton but Christian went well beyond the call of duty realizing this character. I could make a whole other movie on the subject of guilt just from my experience of watching this man reduce himself to 120 pounds."
Probably the most astonishing transformation ever attempted by an actor, Bale saw his risky weight loss programme as the key to understanding his character. "I’ve always admired the idea of total immersion," he says. "But I don’t believe in doing it just for the sake of doing it. You do it in the service of telling a great story, and The Machinist called for behavior at the human extreme. I had to go there to understand this character. It also really helped me to portray Trevor, because when you’re that skinny, you don’t have any energy. You’re exhausted by just walking a few feet across the room, and I think I was able to authentically convey that this is the state in which Trevor is maneuvering through a very dangerous world." Asked about his diet for the movie, Bale says simply, "I didn’t eat. That was it."
"Trevor is imprisoned in his own mind," concludes Bale. "He’s consumed with anxiety and lives with this intense fear that something awful is always just about to happen. He fears he’s the butt of some great cosmic joke. It’s a terrifying place to be but I think we all have been there to a certain degree. We all know just how powerful a combination of sleep deprivation and suppressed emotion can be. It takes him to places that are terrifying and monstrous, but also incredibly revealing."
A dark and shadowy film designed to make us uneasy and keep us guessing, The Machinist holds us captive within a thick cloak of mystery and atmosphere, a nightmarish blend of grim reality and hallucination that builds to the most shocking of conclusions. Combined with an evocative score which conjures up memories of the best of Bernard Herrmann, and a performance far beyond the call of duty, it is a mesmerising thriller, essential to your list.
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