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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Machinist, The
Paramount Classics
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for violence and disturbing images, sexuality and language
Starring
Christian Bale,
Jennifer Jason Leigh,
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón,
John Sharian,
Michael Ironside,
Larry Gilliard Jr.,
Reg E. Cathey, Anna Massey,
and
James DePaul
Trevor Reznik has not slept for a year. His every waking minute has become an unremitting nightmare of confusion, paranoia, guilt, anxiety and terror - each of which is part of an escalating series of clues that will lead to the source of his mysterious affliction. (Paramount Classics)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Scott Kosar
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Brad Anderson
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: June 7, 2005
Theatrical: October 22, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
98 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Spain |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
90
The Hollywood Reporter
Duane Byrge
A brilliantly honed tale of dementia, starring a skeletal Christian Bale as a tormented insomniac wasting away and terrorized by his irreal existence.
90
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Psychological suspense at its finest.
88
New York Post
Megan Lehmann
Anderson gives The Machinist a sickly noirish look that contributes to the creeping horror - but it's the emaciated Bale's spectral presence that leaves the imprint.
83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Bale is totally convincing, if not especially endearing.
80
Film Threat
Don R. Lewis
The Machinist is so brave and visually impressive, it should demand an audience.
75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
A harrowing experience for those to whom this sort of story appeals.
75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Director Brad Anderson tightens the screws of suspense, but it's Bale's gripping, beyond-the-call-of-duty performance that holds you in thrall.
75
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Bale gives a near-great performance as a man with all the symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia and the film weaves an ingenious psychological web.
75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Bale is brilliant.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The film presents a compelling portrait of mental illness, but looking at Bale may make audiences feel as though they're watching a documentary.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
In the hands of a less talented filmmaker, The Machinist would have felt like a stunt. But Anderson, with a terrific assist from Bale, makes his character's plight achingly physical.
75
Chicago Tribune
Achy Obejas
A moody psychological thriller with a stunning performance by Christian Bale at its core.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
The director Brad Anderson, working from a screenplay by Scott Kosar, wants to convey a state of mind, and he and Bale do that with disturbing effectiveness.
70
Chicago Reader
Andrea Gronvall
Here his (Bale's) physicality is repellent, yet he carries the occasionally creaky plot of Scott Kosar's unsettling screenplay to a resonant finish.
70
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Not quite stunning enough to live up to a boldly bleak and unrelenting buildup.
70
Variety
Todd McCarthy
An intense, precision-controlled psychological mystery built around a very creepy lead performance by Christian Bale.
67
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Never gives us the nuts and bolts of mental illness and guilt, just the sight of cooped-up steam escaping from a valve that’s about to blow.
63
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Turns out to be something entirely different than it initially seemed, and while the conclusion brings everything to a logical close, it also renders the movie less interesting -- a stunt that didn't merit Bale's startling, and dangerous, transformation.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
An hallucinatory mix of the imagined and the real, all revolving around the mystery at the cold heart of the tale.
63
USA Today
Mike Clark
Give Anderson credit for at least sustaining a mood. This is the kind of all-or-nothing movie in which a filmmaker probably can't waver from his tone.
60
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
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.
60
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Anderson is a master of detail, from the film's ubiquitous fish motif to the elaborate carnival set piece that unfolds inside the claustrophobic confines of a spook-house ride called "Route 666."
60
Empire
Ian Nathan
It's a result so painfully logical it would make Lynch's hair stand on end.
58
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Although the primary plot line turns out to be a letdown, there are aspects of The Machinist that redeem it. Bale's performance is one; another is the dull, metallic look of the picture.
50
Dallas Observer
Luke Y. Thompson
Director Brad Anderson (Session 9) is usually really good at humanizing ambiguous characters, and he ultimately succeeds, but he has to fight against Scott Kosar's script.
50
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
The main, if not only, reason to see The Machinist is for Christian Bale's title performance, and even then you have to be a fan of hardcore martyrdom in the service of craft.
50
LA Weekly
Kim Morgan
In a way, though, it’s all Bale's show. Withering down to an alarming 120 pounds, he delivers a deeply obsessed performance that leaves us both fascinated and sickened.
42
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Bale exists all too large under the circumstances, a well-fed actor playing at emaciation for the sake of a fiction about a character whose torment is as unreadable as his vertebrae are countable.
40
Village Voice
Dennis Lim
The Machinist has no meat on its bones, and we've seen it all before.
40
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
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.
38
Premiere
Peter Debruge
Director Brad Anderson (Session 9) overtly cribs from everyone from Dostoevsky to Kafka.
30
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
Unrelentingly dreary, and seemingly destined to be remembered, if at all, as that movie Christian Bale lost a full third of his body weight for. It doesn't deserve any better.
 The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 34 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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