The Machinist

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Year:	2004
Country of origin:	Spain
Director:	Brad Anderson
Genre:	Mind games ahoy
Starring:	Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, John Sharian
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361862/
Tagline:	Trevor Reznick is four letters away from the truth.
Favourite line:	"You lying whore!"

Tense, claustrophobic psychological thriller that sees a stick-thin Christian Bale slowly losing his mind.

The plot:
Bale plays Trevor Reznik, a machine operator in a grimy looking factory who claims to have not slept in over a year. Painfully thin to the point of emaciation, with sunken eyes and bones jutting out left right and centre, it is easy to believe him.
At work, one day, Trevor is involved in an accident that sees one of his workmates' arms badly injured, the accident caused because Trevor was distracted by another worker, a man he believes is named Ivan, though the management claim there is no Ivan on the payroll.
So begins a sequence of events that will see Trevor's mind slowly unravel until, eventually, the truth is revealed.

And it's powerful stuff.
Bale is in fine form as the bag of skin and boooons himself, highly convincing as a man living right on the edge.
The movie is shot with some form of filter, which casts everything in a greenish grey hue, rendering all on screen grim and grotty and grimy.
Jennifer Jason Leigh pops up from time to time in prostitute mode, and her 'weirdo' screen presence only serves to add to the otherworldly feel to proceedings, a sensation intensified by the soundtrack which utilises an instrument known as a theremin to give a 50's sci-fi paranoid edge to the score.
Intriguing, intense and intelligent, this is a very good film indeed.