“The Machinist” is a psychological thriller directed by Brad Anderson and starring Christian Bale. The main character Trevor (Bale) is a machinist who at the start of the film is clearly unwell. He is severely underweight and does not seem to sleep. The movie follows him through his working day, his evening visits to a prostitute (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and his coffee at an airport café where he talks to a waitress. He says he hasn’t slept for a year, though biologically that would not be possible. Trevor starts to feel nervous and uneasy when he finds mysterious sticky notes in his flat, and a stranger turns up on his shift at the factory, saying he had been transferred from another shift. This character, Ivan (John Sharian) is a sinister figure Trevor is both drawn to and repelled by.

The narrative starts at the end, so to speak. We see Trevor in his apartment, rolling up a dead body in a carpet. So our first view of him is that he has apparently killed someone. He takes the body out to his car and off to dispose of it, when he is surprised by someone with a flashlight. That’s the point where the story goes back to the start. We start with a question, before we even start wondering about why Trevor is in the condition he is in. Why has he killed someone? Who has he killed? Did he kill him, or is something else going on?

Director Brad Anderson wants us wondering about Trevor right from the start.  The movie is very evocative and moody, with certain scenes being particularly sinister. The carnival is very much a standout, with a regular haunted house ride turning into something extremely horrific (and certainly not suitable for a carnival). The signposts and images are very pertinent to Trevor’s thoughts and mood. There are scenes where Trevor is being spoken to and zones out, shot from his perspective as everything becoming distorted and blurry. It’s hardly a surprise for someone so sleep deprived but it adds to the questions as Trevor believes someone is out to get him. Many of these instances come together at the end of the film to show how his own mind is reinterpreting events to bring him towards a resolution to his problems. The direction is very well done with this end in view, constructing events so, along with the main character, we are given piece by piece the solution.

The plot is very much a character study. Trevor is the main focus so Christian Bale carries the movie. He is excellent in the role, convincingly portraying an ever-increasing confusion, paranoia and anxiety. He becomes aggressive when he feels that people are conspiring against him and pushes away the few people who are on his side. Bale is able even during those aggressive moments to make it very clear he’s actually terrified, and this is why he is lashing out.  I make no comment on the lengths the actor went to in order to show the physical deterioration of the character, which is a whole other discussion. It is certainly an effective part of an astonishingly convincing performance.

I started by describing this movie as a psychological thriller, which is how it is described on IMDB and other movie websites, but I am not so sure that’s entirely accurate. The movie starts by Trevor doing something very dodgy, and even when the timeline goes back to a starting point, Trevor is already sleep-deprived and emaciated. This is something of a flaw in the movie, as the audience does not see Trevor’s deterioration. There is no real question as to whether Trevor is delusional or if someone is really conspiring against him. He is clearly ill and the only uncertainty is which parts of his experience are real and which are hallucinations.  

We are not given any idea of who he was before he became like this. Certainly his paranoia increases during the course of the movie, which, rather than tell his entire story, is mostly concerned with telling how he works out what is wrong with him. It would be more accurate, and certainly a better selling point for the film, to describe it as a psychological study. Without giving away the ending, it is an examination of guilt and what it can do to a human being. In confession he finds relief, and finally, sleep. We don’t see Trevor’s whole story, only its ending, a dark spiral into horror, but, like the carnival ride, eventually out into some sort of light again.

“The Machinist” is a fabulous movie, It is dark, compelling, and riveting. The director, cast and crew work together to provide a searing look into one man’s nightmare that his own situation has created. It’s not a particularly happy movie but it is very good, and I strongly recommend it.