El maquinista (2004)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Brad Anderson

Writer (WGA):

Scott Kosar (written by)

Release Date:

11 November 2004 (Germany)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

How do you wake up from a nightmare, when you're not asleep?

Plot:

An industrial worker who hasn't slept in a year begins to doubt his own sanity

Plot Keywords:

Insomnia | Post It | Machinist | Hallucination | Fatigue

Awards:

7 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Christian Bale	...	Trevor Reznik
Jennifer Jason Leigh	...	Stevie
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón	...	Marie
John Sharian	...	Ivan
Michael Ironside	...	Miller
Larry Gilliard Jr.	...	Jackson (as Larry Gilliard)
Reg E. Cathey	...	Jones
Anna Massey	...	Mrs. Shrike
Matthew Romero Moore	...	Nicholas (as Matthew Romero)
Robert Long	...	Supervisor Furman
Colin Stinton	...	Inspector Rogers
Craig Stevenson	...	Tucker
Ferran Lahoz	...	Gonzales
Jeremy Xido	...	Evangelisti
Norman Bell	...	DMV Clerk

Also Known As:

The Machinist (International: English title) (USA)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and disturbing images, sexuality and language.

Runtime:

101 min | Turkey:94 min (TV version)

Country:

Spain

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

New Zealand:M | Ireland:18 (DVD rating) | Spain:18 | Germany:16 | Iceland:16 | Malaysia:18PL | Malaysia:U (cut) | Hungary:18 | South Korea:15 | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Brazil:16 | Finland:K-15 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | Canada:18A (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Company:

Filmax Group

Trivia:

In the scene where Trevor is driving Marie and Nicholas back home, if you look closely through the driver's side window when Trevor stops, you can see two people sitting in the background. According to Brad Anderson, they were junkies who were actually shooting up heroin during the filming of the scene.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Trevor opens his past due utility bill, the due date says July 27th, yet a couple scenes later he's discussing Mother's Day plans with the waitress at the cafe.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Ivan: Who are you?

Movie Connections:

References Rottweiler (2004)

Soundtrack:

Broadway Lights

A grower

It's a common rule that people subconsciously decide within the first ten minutes whether they like a movie or not. It didn't even take me that long to know that I would be intrigued by "The Machinist".

The set up is perfect. It's adorable how the movie constantly establishes new plot points without ever getting tedious. As the story goes on it gets hard to believe that the ending will be able to explain everything and you start pondering that there can only be one possible conclusion for all the weird events. It may be disappointing at first to learn that your predictions are probably dead-on and you might go: "Not that old twist again." The beautiful thing, however, is that there's an explanation to the twist that really adds a lot to the concept. Much later, when you've already left the theater and you rethink the whole thing, you'll find that the script is much cleverer than you had thought at first. To me the biggest achievement of the movie in retrospective is, that it's never creepy just for the sake of freaking the audience out (and hell, the carnival-sequence is so friggin creepy and well made, it's delightful). Every scene has its purpose and that is not often the case in horror and mystery movies.

Although the whole cast did a fine job, Christian Bale's terrific performance must be mentioned. Usually I'm annoyed by stories about actors losing or gaining weight in preparation for a role, because mostly it's uncalled for anyway and not even worth a mention. What Bale did to prepare for "The Machinist", however, is nothing short of heroic. He lost 60 pounds and looks so unhealthy throughout the whole movie that it's hard to believe he turned into himself again after the director yelled "cut!".

I can recommend "The Machinist" to anybody who's looking for a movie that keeps you intrigued longer than just during its running time. If after 10 minutes you like the movie, after days you'll find yourself still obsessed with it. I love it, when a movie does that to me!