Rating of
3/4
A Modern day Edgar Allan Poe Story
Josh C - wrote on 04/19/07
The machinist unravels itself slowly and carefully until the very end. The acting along with good story telling created uneasiness throughout the movie. I felt like I was watching a modern day Hitchcock film that was based one of Edgar Allan Poe?s works. So if you like a mysterious plot with some strange characters the Machinist delivers.
The most surprising part was the weight loss of Christian Bale. If anyone had doubts about Christian Bale?s acting or dedication to his craft this movie put all of those doubts aside. He lost so much weight for this movie it was sickening. I couldn?t even recognize him at first glance.
***Spoiler Alert***
The movie is a modern day ?Tell-Tale Heart? by Edgar Allen Poe. His guilt eats at him, making him loose weight, develop odd OCD traits, and eventually loose his mind from lack of sleep. Throughout the film you are left wondering why he is loosing weight and why is he keeping track of it like he is proud. His weight-loss is his way of ?disappearing? until he is no longer the same man that killed a boy in a hit and run a year ago. He eventually doesn?t even recognize himself or remember what really happened, but his guilt keeps parts of this tragedy alive until he can no longer bear it and turns himself in.
I like this movie but parts of it were somewhat dull and I wished there was a little bit more in terms of events and less of him staring off into nowhere. The Machinist has many similarities to ?Identity? so if you don?t like that type of movie you probably won?t care for this.
