DVD | The Machinist

The Machinist is a real head-trip. It’s designed to keep you on edge, to keep you wondering, to keep you confused. From the use of lighting, to the music and the concentration camp survivor looking Christian Bale. It’s one of the best psychological thrillers of the year.

The problem with reviewing a movie like this, is that it’s so very easy to give too much away, so I will warn you that reading this before seeing the movie may give the ending away.

You’ve been warned!

The main character, Trevor Reznik is suffering from a bad spell of insomnia, and hasn’t slept for a year. He spends his time compulsively cleaning his apartment and his hands. His only human companionship outside of work is split between a prostitute who’s fallen in love with him, and an romantic relationship with a waitress at a 24hr café.

But it’s at work that things really start to go wrong, as he starts to hallucinate and see a co-worker that no one else can see. With his mind transfixed by this person his concentration lapses causing a horrific injury to one of his workmates. Things go from bad to worse as he starts doubting his own sanity.

Paranoia and conspiracy theories abound in his head, and it’s not until he starts to look inside that he starts to discover the truth.

In a brilliant conclusion to this finely crafted masterpiece, we realise that we’ve been looking at the ability of guilt to destroy a life, and the freedom that confession can bring. For a gritty and dark movie it’s redemptive look at the power of truth over darkness is amazing, and we end up understand exactly why facing up to our responsibilities and problems works much better than trying to hide things we’d rather didn’t exist.