The Machinist: A Nightmarish Thriller

The tagline for Brad Anderson’s brilliant psychological thriller, The Machinist (2004) says, “How do you wake up from a nightmare, when you’re not asleep?” It’s obviously suggestive of a man who suffers from insomnia, but nothing prepares you for the emaciated, ghostly figure of Christian Bale’s Trevor Reznik, who hasn’t slept for an entire year. So much so, for the first few minutes of the film, you struggle to follow the story because you’re so consumed by the scrawny, wilted frame of this otherwise healthy-looking actor. Apparently, Bale shed a whopping 60 pounds for the part, and while that in itself is stupendous commitment, his ability to live this tortured man with unwavering despair is astonishing.

As for the nightmare, it creeps up on you gradually as you watch the life of this ordinary small-town machinist disintegrate in the wake of innumerable sleepless nights spent before the television with Dostoevsky’s The Idiot falling off his lap, or in the arms of a sympathetic prostitute Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) or in the company of Marie (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon), a waitress at the far out airport coffee shop. Yet Reznik appears to be a meticulous man who pays his rent in advance, knows his labour laws by heart, writes post-it reminders on his fridge to organise his chores, leaves generous tips for both his women, monitors his still-dipping weight religiously and scrubs his bathroom floor and his hands over and over again with bleach. But his inner torment seeps through his wasted face and droopy eyes prompting his employer and fellow workers to suspect he’s on drugs. He’s clearly not cut out for a laborious job and inevitably, his zombie-like state leads to an accident in which a fellow worker loses his arm.

The accident and his growing obsession with a man who sneaks up on him unexpectedly (and whom no one else seems to notice) escalates the collapse of his fragile mind and very soon neither he, nor the viewer can tell fact from fiction as we all get embroiled in this ghoulish but gripping narrative. The only perspective the director allows us is through Reznik’s sunken eyes and nothing he sees or experiences makes much sense till the unexpected denouement unfolds and the protagonist can finally get some sleep. Through this entire journey punctuated by unsettling accidents, car chases and creepy shots of a dark apartment, our nerves are as much on edge as Reznik’s. The bleached visual design and dull grey palette compliment a chilling background score ensuring a tight 90 minutes of unmitigated tension.

Perhaps the scariest thing in the world is the human mind and the most difficult person to live with is your self. If you don’t believe me, go watch The Machinist.