Available on DVD since: June 7, 2005; August 30, 2005 (Special Edition)
Director Brad Anderson’s latest film, The Machinist, may have seemed like a good idea on paper, but sadly it makes for a film that deals with a very interesting concept in a fairly superficial and smug way. The fault does not only lie with the film’s director, but in my opinion, Scott Kosar’s script could have used more care in the writing stage, with more focus on character development and dialogue rather than on some of the gimmicks and self-referencing spattered throughout the story. This is not a terrible film, but it is only an ok one, elevated by Christian Bale’s performance as well as Xavi Giménez’s cinematography.
Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) works at a machine shop in Los Angeles, and though it appears to be a monotonous job, Trevor seems to enjoy his work, which casts away suspicion that his job is the reason he has not been able to sleep for one year. His only two friends are a prostitute with a heart of gold named Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and a waitress at the airport named Marie (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), who serves him coffee, pie and friendly chitchat late at night.
Trevor used to be better friends with his coworkers, but recently they have begun seeing him as a recluse. Since the film begins with the unnaturally skeletal Trevor, we begin to wonder how this came to be, and what the effects of such an extreme insomnia are on Trevor’s psyche. More mysteries begin to emerge with the arrival of a character named Ivan (John Sharian), and with Trevor’s increasing paranoia as he causes an accident that seriously injures his coworker Miller (Michael Ironside).
By the end of the film, the mystery is unraveled, and in a satisfying way, so writer Scott Kosar deserves credit for at least constructing the plot nicely, and still making the story feel fresh in a period where every second film, it seems, has a twist ending of some sort. The script’s major low points are the dialogue/character interactions as well as some absurd reactions from some characters, including Trevor Reznik.
In one scene, Trevor fills out a form for a hit-and-run after being hit by a car, and makes a mistake in filling it. Now, after the accident he has gone directly to the police station, so he is visibly injured, bleeding and clothes torn, and the police officer’s first reaction when he notices the mistake on Trevor’s form is that it must be a case of fraud. Trevor was just hit by car, only moments before. Does it not cross the officer’s mind that he might be disoriented after BEING HIT BY A CAR? Once Trevor is accused of fraud, a chase ensues, with Trevor being pursued by two police officers in the street, and this pursuit ends in the sewer. This is one example of a scenario that simply stuck out, and added to some of the bizarre heterogeneity in the film.
In another sense, elements that are supposed to be foreshadowing and some clues interspersed throughout the film are too easy, and are thrust into our faces. Furthermore, I had a real feeling that the filmmakers thought their movie was cleverer than it really is. Choosing from left and right (from good and bad), the recurring mushroom structure at an intersection, and even Trevor’s thinness, all could have been nice “literary” touches, but they should have been dealt with more subtly.
As mentioned above, the two elements that elevate this film for me are Christian Bale’s performance and Xavi Giménez’s cinematography. The film looks very nice, with metallic colors mostly used. This is the first film in which I’ve seen Giménez’s work, and I look forward to seeing more from him in the future.
Christian Bale has invested as much as an actor can ever hope to invest in preparation for a role, and I’m a little sad that his weight loss was not treated as anything more than a gimmick. The character of Trevor had some clichéd lines of dialogue, and some awkward responses to situations in the story, but Bale has completely embodied Trevor that he makes these all seem quite natural, and it was only in retrospect that I realized how poor his material had been in some instances. Overall, Trevor is still the most interesting character, and the best-written one of the film, but Christian Bale raises the character to a higher level through his performance.
Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character Stevie is a cliché, and suffers from having no interesting dialogue during the entire film. Her most original line, near the beginning of the film, “If you were any thinner you wouldn’t exist,” is also the piece of dialogue the filmmakers are most proud of, and is repeated later by Marie. John Sharian also struggles with the poorly conceived Ivan, and this character doesn’t come across as anything but a simple caricature. In general, all of the characters were poorly done (at the writing/directing level), but Michael Ironside and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón bring a natural charm and charisma to their roles that somehow salvages whatever can be saved.
The Machinist held a very interesting premise, but much of the execution of this film could have been improved had the director and/or writer worked to serve the story and characters more than to show off gimmicks and obvious literary devices. Not a bad film, but far from great. It’s sad to see a story that had so much potential crumble beneath its own weight.
Extras
I watched the "Making-of" on the DVD and some of my reactions to the direction and writing of the film were confirmed in interviews with Brad Anderson and Scott Kosar.
I can forgive Kosar, because he seems to be a true geek, and has a passion for different genres of film, which explains why he tried to infuse The Machinist with different elements. His attempt to go for the “cool” effect is explicable, but I could see where all the smugness of the film came from: director Brad Anderson. In the Making-of, he came across as a smug hipster, who is not as clever as he thinks he is.
The most irritating part of the featurette: Brad Anderson explains how he, unlike many other directors (this is implied), pays careful attention to the details during filming. For instance, The Machinist was filmed in Barcelona, which was supposed to substitute Los Angeles, so as director he had to be sure that such details as THE LANGUAGE OF THE STOP SIGNS were correct or else the film would not be authentic. The crew seemed very nice, and looked like they were suffering through some of the hottest Spanish days during filming. Had Brad Anderson stopped talking, the temperature may have been 5-10 degrees lower during production.
Ok, now that I’ve said that, I’d just like to add that I checked Brad Anderson’s filmography, and though he left a really bad impression on me from the Making-of of The Machinist, I learned that he was responsible for the fantastic, and terribly underrated Session 9.
Session 9 is one of the best psychological horror films of the past ten years, and it came at a time when the template for horror films in North America was made from Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Final Destination. Session 9 is an excellent film, which I strongly urge you to see!
How I Came to Watch The Machinist
I watched The Machinist at my aunt’s apartment with a coworker named Michel, who has recently begun talking to me more often than he used to! He actually quite enjoyed the film; maybe it’s a guy thing to enjoy this movie, I don’t know.
Sofiane, my geek reference on cult movies and comic books had urged me to watch this, following our discussion about Darkman (see Geek History), but he was very disappointed by my reaction! I simply cannot see this as a cult film. I think it’s a film that tries to become a clever cult film, tries to transcend the cult film, but finally fails at being clever or a cult film. Sofiane became upset; he started talking about how the scale of the film, the reception it has gotten, and the bizarre themes are all cult. I insisted that it seemed quite mainstream and easy to me, and therefore not cult.
Michel liked it and said it reminded him of Fight Club, and I told him that it was a simple imitation if you look at it like that, but Michel is not a geek and is more agreeable than Sofiane is! In any case, Sofiane had also lent me Guillermo del Toro’s Cronos to watch for my next Geek History entry, but I’m not sure he’ll talk to me about that film after our disagreement over The Machinist.
