“‘THE MACHINIST’ is disturbing, dark and terrifying psychological thriller but featuring a storyline that is absolutely captivating!  A magnificent performance by Christian Bale. Highly recommended!”
TITLE: THE MACHINIST
DURATION: 101 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese
RATED: R (For Violence and Disturbing Images, Sexuality and Language)
COMPANY: Paramount Classics/Paramount Home Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: May 19, 2009
Directed by Brad Anderson
Written by Scott Kosar
Executive Producer: Carlos Fernandez, Antonia Nava
Producer: Julio Fernandez
Line Producer: Javier Arsuaga and Teresa Gefaell
Music by Roque Banos
Director of Photography: Xavi Gimenez
Edited by Luis de la Madrid
Production Design by Alain Bainee
Art Direction by Inigo Navarro
Set Decoration by Hector Gil
Costume Design by Patricia Monne and Maribel Perez
Starring:
Christian Bale as Trevor Reznik
Jennifer Jason Leigh as Stevie
Aitana Sanchez-Gijon as Marie
John Sharian as Ivan
Michael Ironside as Miller
Larry Gilliard Jr. as Jackson
Reg E. Cathey as Jones
Anna Massey as Mrs. Shrike
Matthew Romero Moore as Nicholas
Robert Long as Supervisor Furman
When cryptic notes turn up mysteriously in his apartment and when hallucinations of a co-worker that no one else sees causes a gruesome machine shop injury, he embarks on a journey to find out whether there is an elaborate plot to drive him mad or if his fatigue simply robbed him of reason. The more he learns, the less he wants to know.
In 2004, writer Scott Kosar (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2003) and “The Amityville Horror” (2005) wrote a script titled “The Machinist”. Director Brad Anderson (writer of “Transsiberian” and directed “Session 9” and “Happy Accidents”) enjoyed Kosar’s dark storyline so much but unfortunately, no American film studio was interested in picking the film up.
Fortunately, the film was picked up by Fantastic Factory of Filmax and Castelao Productions in Spain and the film known as “El Maquinista” was released and won multiple “Best Film” awards. The film although seems to take place in America was all shot in Barcelona, Spain and Director Brad Anderson who suffered a back injury during filming, directed the film while lying on a gurney.
“THE MACHINIST” would eventually gain momentum in the US and received rave reviews due to its dark storyline but most of all, the performance by Christian Bale who literally starved himself for four months going from 182 pounds down to 120 pounds.
The film revolves around a machinist named Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale). He has chronic insomnia and has lost a tremendous amount of weight that his work and people who know him are worried because he’s to a point where his body is starting to seem skeletal.
The film kicks off with Trevor wrapping a body in carpet and taking the body to the beach where he kicks the carpet to the ocean in order to dispose of the body. He is then interrupted by a voice behind him.
The film then goes back to the past.
Trevor, who is a typically quiet man but because of his skeletal frame and strange behavior, his co-workers try to distance themselves from him or try to joke with him.
The people he tend to talk to is his landlord, a prostitute named Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who cares about him and a woman named Maria (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon) who works at a diner but tend to question him about his weight loss.
While at home, Trevor’s behavior is even more shocking as he uses bleach to wash his hands, constantly using a toothbrush to clean the bathroom floor and post-it notes around his fridge tend to bother him. One is hangman and a note that states “Who Are You?”
One day while parked outside his work, he meets a man named Ivan (John Sharian) who says he works at the factory. Trevor has never met him before but doesn’t think much of it.  While at work, he is distracted by Ivan and Miller (Michael Ironside) gets involved in a machine accident in which he loses his whole left arm.
As the factory conducts its investigation, Trevor tells them that Ivan distracted him but his work says there is no Ivan working at the factory. His co-workers continue to distance themselves even more because they think he’s responsible for Miller’s accident and that he’s going nuts.
While leaving work, he spots Ivan driving out of the parking lot and Trevor follows him. The two talk at the bar and while Ivan leaves his wallet behind while going to the bathroom, Ivan looks and finds a picture of Ivan with one of his co-workers. Immediately, Trevor feels that he is being setup by his co-workers or the factory.
During another day of work, Trevor gets himself in an accident and the machine goes on while his arm is stuck. He is saved by a co-worker but lashes out on all of them saying they turned on the machine for retaliation to what happened to Miller. He then tells them that they are trying to set him up. Because he threatens his supervisor and his co-workers, he is fired from his job.
Immediately, Trevor goes to Stevie who tries to console him. But he also starts to develop feelings for Maria and invites her and her son to an amusement park. While, taking pictures of Maria and her son, Trevor feels a bit of deja vu and can’t understand why he feels that way.
While Maria briefly leaves, Trevor takes her son out to a funhouse known as “Route 666” and because of its grotesque and dark nature, her son seems to have suffered and Trevor starts to panic. Maria arrives and tells him that her son had suffered an epileptic seizure and that he’s not in fault.
Meanwhile, things start to get worse for Trevor. He doesn’t pay his utility bill sand now he starts to live in darkness. His refrigerator has blood coming out of it, suggesting he has something/someone in there. His landlord reports that there is an awful smell coming out of his house and there is some sort of leak coming from his home.
Trevor has become more alienated to everyone and in several situations has seen Ivan, as if this mysterious man has been stalking him.
Trevor then goes to the DMV to get a trace on his license number hoping he can get an address but the DMV tells him that unless he’s a family member of has gotten into an accident, only the police can give him a trace on the license plate number. So, Trevor gets himself hit by a car, now with an injured leg and looking all beat up, he goes to the police department to report a hit and run. They run the license plate number of Ivan’s but the police tells Trevor that the car belongs to him and he reported the vehicle destroyed over a year ago.
Shocked and surprised, he runs away from the cops and wonders if their is a conspiracy against him or if he’s going mad. Who is Ivan? And why does the film show in the beginning that Trevor was wrapping a person up inside a carpet?  “THE MACHINIST” is a psychological thriller that will captivate your attention from beginning to end.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“THE MACHINIST” gets its High Definition treatment via 1080p on Blu-ray. The film showcases the world of Trevor Reznick in a dark, muted pallete and showcasing a brooding, dark monochromatic life that he is living. This is quite important because we know that there is something odd with Reznick and it was important to showcase the film without its vibrant colors. In fact, you’ll feel that you watching a film that is focused on more of the blacks, the grays and the darker side of the color spectrum.
As for picture quality, you do see a bit of spots and speckles on some parts of the film but you will also notice that the transfer to HD also brings out the grain. Overall, this is probably one of the few films where vibrancy of colors is not what I wanted to see. And the depressing shades of darkness is what is more pronounced.
As for audio, The film is featured in English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD (Also, French and Spanish 5.1) the majority of the film is all dialogue based. Front channel, clear and understandable. The musical score by Roque Banos definitely highlights the eeriness of certain scenes of the film. There are some scenes where you do notice sound effects especially during the scenes shot at the amusement park and then at a scene that displayed thunder.
Subtitles are presented in English, English SDH, Spanish and Portuguese.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“THE MACHINIST” comes with the following extras:
- Commentary: Audio Commentary by Director Brad Anderson – A very informative commentary by Brad Anderson as he goes into what he wanted to accomplish with the film, shooting in Barcelona, talking about the various talens and really dissecting the certain scenes. In fact, he’s a brutally honest director that is not afraid to pick apart his film not for the positive but also some of the negative.  Overall, informative.
- Manifesting the Machinist – (23:00) This featurette is exclusive to the Blu-ray release and is in HD. We learn more about the narrative of the film, the performance by the cast including interviews with cast and crew and more!
- The Machinist: Hiding in Plain Sight – (13:58) This featurette is exclusive to the Blu-ray release is in HD and features the major twist of the film and how they wanted to put enough twists that would fool the audience.
- The Machinist: Breaking The Rules – (25:19) This featurette from the original DVD release features interviews with writer Scott Kosar, Director Brad Anderson and the cast. We learn about how the film came about, shooting in Spain and making people think it’s America and a lot of informative information of the behind-the-scenes making of the film.
- Deleted Scenes – (12:05) The following are eight deleted scenes.   These are actually solid scenes that could have changed the emotional impact of the film. The deleted scenes are in standard definition.
• 1) Trevor Visits Mysterious Grave
• 2) Alternate Intersection Crosscut with Burning Paper
• 3) Pensive Trevor (Alternate Transition to Airport)
• 4) Stevie’s Mysterious “John”
• 5) Alternate Chase Ending Revealing Chimneys
• 6) Trevor Tries To Skip Town
• 7) Trevor Confronts Mother at Cemetery
• 8) Alternative Version of Holding Cell - Theatrical Trailer – (2:32) The original theatrical trailer in standard definition.
“THE MACHINIST” is one of those films that you can look at it as quite a unique story. The film is a psychological thriller that has you on the edge of your seat at times, especially when you start to explore the psyche of Trevor Reznick and the dark and dreary world that he lives in. But what made this film believable was Christian Bale and what he put himself through to making his character seem real and odd.
Before the Batman films and “Terminator Salvation”, we have always learned about how intense an actor, how dedicated Christian Bale was to character role.    There are not many films that have featured an actor losing weight (the last major film which an actor had to gain and lose a lot of weight was “CAST AWAY” starring Tom Hanks) but for Bale to lose so much and look quite skeletal was shocking.
Having gone down to 120 pounds from 160+ pounds in four months is shocking and the pain and inconvenience he put himself to achieve the look for this role and still wanting to go down to 100 pounds is just amazing (and gaining it back with muscle for the following year with “Batman Begins”). And also a big applause to the make up crew who made Bale’s character so eery with its dark shade around the eyes, knot on his forehead and blood scars throughout his face.
As for the Blu-ray release, although this is not a film that you want to show off for its picture and audio quality, the solid commentary and even for its few Blu-ray special features definitely make this Blu-ray release worth owning. If you owned the previous DVD release and enjoy the film, I can definitely recommend going for the double dip.
Overall, this is quite an intense psychological thriller that fans of films by Alfred Hitchcock can probably give a nod to. It’s cleverly written and the challenges that the cast and crew had to go through (especially trying to make Barcelona, Spain look like a town in the US) to make this film possible was well-done.  It may be a bit dark and eery for some but it was a film that definitely caught me by surprise at the end.
“THE MACHINIST” is definitely recommended.