I must admit, Brad Anderson truly hit the jackpot in casting Christian Bale and John Sharian. Both performed and acted brilliantly, the dedication Bale put into this role was monumental, providing a much more authentic experience. Along with a sensationally deviant film plot involving entirely around an Insomnia ridden machinist with a very deranged imagination. A movie that enraptures the viewer to confounding proportions. Fantastic.

I can't tell you how fat this movie makes me feel.

All a lot of people talk about when it comes to this film is Christian Bale's dramatic weight loss to play the part of insomniac Trevor Reznik. However this does a great disservice to the quality of Bale's acting. He is simply outstanding.

Christian Bale is Trevor Reznik, a lathe-operator who suffers from terrible insomnia and hasn't slept in a year. As he finds it increasingly more difficult to fit in with anyone either at work or home his life deteriorates into paranoia. He meets a deformed co-worker who only he seems to have met, and from here he is plagued by a number of confusing situations as he attempts to piece it all together and find out what is really going on. An amazing story, excellently told, with a superb performance from Bale who, as you will see, put more into this role than any before. The Machinist is a dark, complex, and gripping mystery that you will not forget in a hurry. Lends itself to repeat watches with its barrage of subtle images and clues. An absolute must see film!

Great mindbending film, but Christian Bale is why you shoud see this. He completely becomes his character and presents such a real portrait of a disturbed man. He is simply fantastic. Easily his very best performance to date.

A good thriller but nothing mind-blowing besides the sinister atmosphere(direction/score/cinematography) and of course the insanely paranoid performance by Christian Bale.

the gimmick of adding christian bale is neat but the story really just services itself around the Twist Ending and as such doesn't really justify its conception

What can i say , this movie just blew my mind.
How the story tells itself and everything falls in the right place.

The shots were also really great and definitely something that i like about this movie. And Christian Bale man , what a man. His acting skills are just INSANE. All of his movies are just great.

This movie is definitely one of my favorite movies , and i'll probably watch it again.

I've seen the Machinist two times in the last two days.
By the first time, I slept during the middle of the movie, and, therefore, I've watched just the begining and the end.

Knowing how it would end, the great 'final twist' was no longer the focus of my attention, and this made the experience much greater. If it's possible to get disapointed when you're anxious to the conclusion, when you already know it, the details, the meaning of each and every symbol shown at the screen gets another dimension.

To have seen 'The Machinist' twice has resulted in a very nice experience to me.

Christian Bale does an excellent work on this one but my favorite (and most hated) character it's definitely Ivan.

What is wrong with Christian Bale? He is down to 120 pounds, has not slept for a year, and can barely get around he's so weary and depressed. portrayal of the effects of guilt on a good man and the scary encounters he endures along the way make for an interesting and puzzling film. The clues are there along like in THE SIXTH SENSE) but cleverly obscured behind the facade of reasonable explanations for them that do not provide us with quite enough info to understand what is going on until very late in the film. Bale lost so much weight to do this and it should have made a bigger splash as a film butit may have turned off potential viewers. I liked it for the most part but felt the pain Bale endured when the solution was presented. Not all viewers are willing to suffer through such a film.

It was expertly acted, directed and photographed, definitely a film I admire. Sadly I wasn't in the mood for this kind of film though, so ignore the rating, or know it's subject to change.

Reminded me a lot of American Psycho, another movie starring Christian Bale and one of my favorites. In fact, in the beginning of the movie it felt like a cheap ripoff. But as the story progresses they turn out not be that similar, although some elements are very like. The Machinist has a very intriguing story where you never actually know what's really going on, you can only guess. Christian Bale is great as always despite looking like hell, and I also really liked the Ivan character (John Sharian).

The whole film conspires to invite the viewer into the same state of confusion and uneasiness that the main character feels, but it's Bale's performance that is by far the most successful at that task. Unfortunately, despite the success at achieving a specific atmosphere, the film fails to do much with it.