The Machinist

Before Batman Beginnings, Christian Bale did a small indy film called The Machinist. It's about - duh - a machinist. The movie begins in media res, with the hero halfway though a year without sleep. If you're interested in seeing it, you should skip the following. I picked this movie up for a twofold reason: it has Christian Bale, who as I've said is Hot, and it's about insomnia.

I only wish I suffered from the same sort of insomnia that this hero does, and for the sake of illustration, I'll refer to it as Diet-Center Insomnia. They actually had Bale go down to at least 120lbs, maybe less. He looked like a concentration camp prisoner. I've heard of method acting, but damnit to hell, this is sick.

One of the opening scenes, after seeing the hero zombie it up at work, has Trevor Reznik (Bale's character) nodding off on his couch to a copy of Doestoevsky's The Idiot. I love Doestoevsky, so I got a little giddy, thinking that this movie might attempt some sort of Mad Russian plot line with correspondingly twisted characterizations. The Idiot deals with one Prince Myshkin, a sort of ideal of nobility and charity. Myshkin befriends a man he meets on a train taking him to live with the husband of his only living relative, a general in the army. Myshkin and his friend Rhogozin are depicted in stark contrast; Myshkin is often thought an idiot for his quiet and childlike mannerisms, and Rhogozin is your typical clever and wicked Russian. They both meet a girl, and Rhogozin falls in love with her. The story centers around Myshkin trying to save the girl from Rhogozin, and his conflicting love with the daughter of his host. In the end, Rhogozin tries to kill Myshkin, and makes off with Nastassya and murders her. Agalya, the general's daughter, runs away as well, and Myshkin loses his wits. With this in mind, I started looking for any subtle parallels in the movie, which from the getgo is clearly a mystery.

Trevor often spends his nights with a hooker named Stevie. He confides his problems with insomnia to her, and she "comforts" him. She offers to give up her lifestyle for him, and at first he glady accepts. But he also meets a woman who has been serving coffee to him in the early morning hours after work in an airport coffeeshop, and begins to spends time with her and her son.

An accident at work occurs after Trevor first meets a shady character named Ivan. Ivan distracts Trevor, who is helping another guy cut something in a saw-mill. The guy gets stuck, and Trevor is unable to shut the machine off before the other loses his arm. After explaining what happened, he is told that no one named Ivan works there, and the boss assumes Trevor has gone nuts, noting his obvious health problems and lack of attention. Trevor is eventually fired, and he spends the remainder of the movie trying to track down Ivan.

It becomes fairly clear that Ivan is an imaginary character, so I figured the writer was attempting to contrast the real Trevor with this imaginary Ivan fellow, ala Rhogozin. The prostitue could clearly represent Nastassya, and the coffeeshop girl the general's daughter Aglaya. Ok. Trevor finds a picture of Ivan fishing with a buddy from work, and manages to lose it. He later finds it on Stevie's nightstand, and assumes Ivan is her boyfriend. He is disgusted with her, and against all her protests, leaves her after a judicious beating. We never see the coffeeshop girl again, and the movie resolves with Trevor finding Ivan, who he thinks kidnapped and killed the son of coffeeshop girl, and murdering him.

He finally realizes that Ivan and the coffeshop woman aren't real. The latter is the mother of the child he killed in a hit-and-run the year before, the same child he imaginarily befriended and Ivan killed. Realizing the nature of his illness, he turns himself in, and immediately falls asleep on the bench of his prison cell.

Bleh. What a bunch of modern Psychological bullshit. This movie had so much potential, and had me guessing at what was really going on. Unfortunately, what I was guessing was far more interesting and creative than what was intended. The parallels between the movie and The Idiot are clearly there, but fall apart along with the plot in the end. The opening scene with him reading The Idiot is meant to serve as the beginning of his self-imposed fantasy, a way for his intellect to make him realize what he has been supressing. Blah Blah. I really wish someone could capture the characterizations and tragedy of a novel like The Idiot, and produce a decent modern movie. And use Christian Bale. The movie is worth watching for him alone, just don't expect anything brilliant plotwise. I will say that the ending isn't predicatble.

I've now slept three times (I won't say nights, I just went to bed after dinner and got up at midnight) in the last eight days. It's not insomnia.. when I get tired, I sleep well. I just haven't gotten tired very often. Weird. I should probably go back to the doctor, as this might have something to do with the heart issues I've been having. Say a prayer if you're into that kind of thing.

I've been kicking ass on the links though, and my HC is almost back to scratch. I had a lesson the other day from our new Pro, and he noticed a few problems with my swing. Sure enough. I'm getting tempted to spend the next year working on my game and try the amateur Nationwide Tour. What a sweet life. Play golf for five or ten years and earn enough to retire on interest. I wonder if I should be more worried about the moral and social utility of the ways I plan on earning money.