Review of The Machinist (2004) by Sausages M — 31 Mar 2014
I think I understand now why they had Christian Bale slim down to skeleton size, if they hadn't I wouldn't have been tricked into watching this film.
Okay, I don't normally spoil films but I want to save anyone the 1 hr 40 I wasted waiting to be wrong about the obviously signposted ending that stole generously from Fight Club and also quite a bit from Momento as well.
He's mad, none of it's real. The end. But unlike those films you work this out 10 minutes in. Mainly because the character tells you he's gone a year without sleep and looks like death. Presumably it hasn't actually been a year because the human mind usually starts falling to bits around the week mark of no sleep, and well to lose that amount of weight it's likely wouldn't take very long either. I'm guessing it's more like a few weeks, maximum.
Anyway, you'll hear lots of people say "Christian Bale is great in this" and yes, his transformation is pretty good, but it's like Olivier to Hoffman upon noticing he looked like shit and asking him why and being told it was method acting and Olivier going "Why don't you try acting? It's easier.".
Feh. Anyway this film was an utter waste of time. Avoid it like the plague.
This review of The Machinist (2004) was written by Sausages M on 31 Mar 2014.
The Machinist has generally received very positive reviews.
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