The Machinist

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The Machinist ★★ El Maquinista 2004 (R)

Best-known as the film in which Bale dropped more than 60 pounds to portray the cadaverous title role. Trevor (Bale) is a lonely, disturbed insomniac whose inattention causes a co-worker (Ironside) to lose an arm. Trevor comes to believe that his fellow workers want revenge, including the sinister Ivan (Sharian) who may actually be a figment of Trevor's paranoid imagination; that his hooker girlfriend Stevie (Leigh) may be playing him false; that he is the victim of a conspiracy and bedeviled by unseen tormentors; and that his only solace is kindly waitress Marie (Sanchez-Gijon). It's creepy and stylistic (there's a kind of cold blue tinge to the photography) and Anderson provides a quasi-believable conclusion as a payoff for all the misery endured. 102m/C DVD . US Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Ironside, Reg E. Cathey, Anna Massey, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, John Sharian, Larry (Lawrence) Gilliard Jr., Matthew Romero Moore; D: Brad Anderson; W: Scott Kosar; C: Xavi Gimenez; M: Roque Banos.