The Machinist (2004)

An industrial worker who hasn't slept in a year begins to doubt his own sanity.

Director:

Brad Anderson

Writer:

Scott Kosar

Stars:

Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón

7 wins & 15 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christian Bale	...	Trevor Reznik
Jennifer Jason Leigh	...	Stevie
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón	...	Marie
John Sharian	...	Ivan
Michael Ironside	...	Miller
Lawrence Gilliard Jr.	...	Jackson (as Larry Gilliard)
Reg E. Cathey	...	Jones
Anna Massey	...	Mrs. Shrike
Matthew Romero Moore	...	Nicholas (as Matthew Romero)
Robert Long	...	Supervisor Furman
Colin Stinton	...	Inspector Rogers
Craig Stevenson	...	Tucker
Ferran Lahoz	...	Gonzales
Jeremy Xido	...	Evangelisti
Norman Bell	...	DMV Clerk

Storyline

Trevor Reznik is a machinist in a factory. An extreme case of insomnia has led to him not sleeping in a year, and his body withering away to almost nothing. He has an obsessive compulsion to write himself reminder notes and keep track of his dwindling weight, both scribbled on yellow stickies in his apartment. The only person he lets into his life in an emotional sense is Stevie, a prostitute, although he has an infatuation with Maria, a single mother waitress working in an airport diner. His co-workers don't associate with and mistrust him because of not knowing what is going on in his life that has led to his emaciated physical appearance. A workplace incident further alienates him with his coworkers, and in conjunction with some unfamiliar pieces of paper he finds in his apartment, Trevor believes that someone or some people - probably one or some of his coworkers - are out to get him, using a phantom employee named Ivan as their front. As Trevor goes on a search for evidence as to...

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Plot Keywords:

hallucination | mental breakdown | insomnia | single mother | waitress | 

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Taglines:

How can you wake up from a nightmare if you are not asleep?

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and disturbing images, sexuality and language

Details

Country:

Spain France UK USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

3 December 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

El maquinista

Filming Locations:

Hospital del Torax. Terrassa. Barcelona, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$64,661, 24 October 2004, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$1,082,715, 7 April 2005

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$8,203,235, 31 December 2006

Company Credits

Production Co:

Filmax Group, Castelao Producciones, Canal+ España

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min 94 min (TV)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Spanish producers wanted to use local Spanish talent in minor roles and then dub them into English. Brad Anderson resisted this suggestion as they thought the dubbing may not go over well, and insisted on casting local expatriate American and British actors instead who could speak with an American accent.

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Goofs

In the driving sequence after Trevor is asked if he has had any head injuries, the cigarette lighter position changes between the time it is pushed from when it pops out.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Ivan: Who are you?

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Connections

References Se7en (1995)

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Soundtracks

Lunar Rhapsody
(1948)
Written by Buddy Feyne (as Budy Feine) & Harry Revel
Worldwide Publisher Michael H. Goldsen Inc.,
sub-publisher for Spain and Portugal Alondra Music, S.L.
Performed by Les Baxter
(p) 1948 Capitol Records
Licensed by EMI Music Spain, Madrid, Spain 2004
Special products department - exclusive assignee

User Reviews

A grower

It's a common rule that people subconsciously decide within the first ten minutes whether they like a movie or not. It didn't even take me that long to know that I would be intrigued by "The Machinist".

The set up is perfect. It's adorable how the movie constantly establishes new plot points without ever getting tedious. As the story goes on it gets hard to believe that the ending will be able to explain everything and you start pondering that there can only be one possible conclusion for all the weird events. It may be disappointing at first to learn that your predictions are probably dead-on and you might go: "Not that old twist again." The beautiful thing, however, is that there's an explanation to the twist that really adds a lot to the concept. Much later, when you've already left the theater and you rethink the whole thing, you'll find that the script is much cleverer than you had thought at first. To me the biggest achievement of the movie in retrospective is, that it's never creepy just for the sake of freaking the audience out (and hell, the carnival-sequence is so friggin creepy and well made, it's delightful). Every scene has its purpose and that is not often the case in horror and mystery movies.

Although the whole cast did a fine job, Christian Bale's terrific performance must be mentioned. Usually I'm annoyed by stories about actors losing or gaining weight in preparation for a role, because mostly it's uncalled for anyway and not even worth a mention. What Bale did to prepare for "The Machinist", however, is nothing short of heroic. He lost 60 pounds and looks so unhealthy throughout the whole movie that it's hard to believe he turned into himself again after the director yelled "cut!".

I can recommend "The Machinist" to anybody who's looking for a movie that keeps you intrigued longer than just during its running time. If after 10 minutes you like the movie, after days you'll find yourself still obsessed with it. I love it, when a movie does that to me!