Take Five
By George Rose
August 11, 2009
The Machinist (2004) – watched/written August 8, 2009
As it turns out, I was able to refrain from making any calls at the festival the other night. I'm sure you were all rooting for another misadventure and I'm sorry to disappoint. However, my entire family has now left Greece and I am alone again, which means I'll probably continue "dating" the cougar until I leave in four weeks. She has a car and awesome friends, two things I'll ignore my conscience to have. I know it's probably wrong to lead this woman on, but I've only been alone again for one day and I already feel like I'm going crazy. It would only be a matter of time before I start creating imaginary friends, so I've convinced myself that I'm at doing the right thing, at least as far as my sanity is concerned.
In my lonely state, I started to reflect. I remembered the days before Terminator Salvation when I liked Christian Bale (American Psycho, anyone?). The actor with wide range gave me no reason not to like him, until he got all high-and-mighty on the T4 set and cursed out a crew member. Isn't that the director's job? Sorry, I forgot for a moment that I'm supposed to sympathize with the stressed-out rich and famous. Poor celebrities, they have it so tough, we should allow them to treat others like crap because... well... we like stalking them in gossip magazines. But then I realized, everyone makes mistakes. I drunk dial and Bale has Turrets, and both of us deserve a second chance. T4 wasn't the worst movie of the summer and I'm not going to pretend Dark Knight was anything but amazing just because Bale can be a jerk sometimes. And what better way for Bale to redeem himself than by watching him in The Machinist?
Wow, that man can act. Not only can he act, he can starve himself down to a meager 115 pounds for the sake of a role. In this film, he plays an insomniac named Trevor who hasn't slept in over a year and has withered away, both physically and mentally, in the process. At first he just seems quiet and reserved, but still genuinely nice. This is a version of him you can sympathize with and I did, so much so that it pained me to see him slowly tumble into insanity. His sweet interactions with Marie (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon), a diner waitress at a nearby airport, and Stevie (Jennifer Jason Lee), a hooker, lead you to believe he's just insecure. And why shouldn't he be? You can see his ribcage and spine every time he takes his shirt off!
While the insomnia and weight loss have been occurring for one year, you're somewhat led to believe the industrial worker finally loses his mind after he gets a coworker of his seriously injured. The responsibility of such an accident would drive me crazy, and it's after this that you're taken on the wild ride that is his mind. He begins losing his friends, his job, gets into trouble with the law, breaks his hooker-girlfriend's heart, creates an imaginary friend/nemesis, and even goes so far as to throw himself into oncoming traffic. All of it is wildly compelling, except for his imaginary friend, Ivan, the only downside to the film. He's not so much ominous as he is a bit annoying. The direction, screenwriting and editing are all so well done, that it seems a travesty that the casting department picked John Sharian. I supposed he does the job of appearing creepy just fine but he just felt out of place. Maybe he just spoke too much because I enjoyed Bale's madness more whenever Ivan wasn't around.
Bale's sanity becomes such thin ice that you can't help but watch the movie with a painful nervous tension. At any moment he could hurt someone and it's a huge, shocking relief when he doesn't. Rarely does a movie without special effects have me so far up on the edge of my seat. And then comes the ending, which explains the real reason why his downward spiral began in the first place. I didn't even realize during the hour and a half before it that they were dropping hints the whole time. Here I thought they were showing the aftermath of his breakdown when the reason was really being revealed to us from the start. It all seemed so obvious and yet it was such a great twist that I lost my own mind for a moment and forget why I ever disliked Bale. I may have done a drunk dial and I may ignore so much of the advice given to me, but The Machinist reminded me that second chances are possible and that Bale really is one of a kind. Redemption is even possible for his character because, in the end, he sleeps.
Overall Rating: A-
*Check back in two weeks on August 25th for the next Take Five from Greece!
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