"... I haven't slept in a year..."


image courtesy of countingdown.com

a man who is being eaten up on the inside out. because a little guilt can go a long way. insomnia, madness, fear and despair abound in, what seems to me, brad anderson's sophomore effort. i felt that his previous well-known piece, session 9 was fat with potential but still relatively raw. the machinist is a dramatic noir which reminds me a lot of memento. for some reasons, i feel that the plot is rather typical... largely due to the fact that i sort of figured out part of the ending halfway through.

however, the engaging storytelling, the gloomy texture of the film, christian bale's consuming (almost literally) performance as the film's emaciated protagonist and the exquisite dramatic tension of the movie make up for the fact that this piece is really nothing exceptionally new in terms of narrative ideas. i applaud brad anderson's ability to build the tension up to its climatic moments. he's big on symbolic significance in this one too. and that's always a good thing with me. worth a watch in my opinion.

trailer
official movie site