There may have been a topic of this in the past, too lazy to check. i just saw this on a bootleg, and have to say i was disapointed. It started out with a basic, but great premise of man so enveloped in insomnia that he starts to get paranoid.

*SPOILERZ BELOW LOL*



Unfortunately, I think the "payoff" wasn't very good. I was dispointed to learn Ivan was part of his conscience, and although he represented his guilt, and not a split personality, this "twist" has been so played out since the days of Tyler Durden that it's just disgusting. I kind of like how his guilt drove him to insanity, but really, we learn everything was imagined, and you can see these things coming in the first 5 minutes of the film, and you hope the director is just leading you on.

Great performance by Bale, who was ultra commited to this role, and Leigh does a good job as well. Ivan started to get interesting but just turned out boring, because he isnt even real, and the ending fizzled out. That was also a problem, I think, with Memento, although the end voice over saved that movie, but both have their "twists" too slowly presented with no puncctuation. Again, Memento didnt really need a big twist, it saved itself with the end, and turned out to be very tight, simple, yet intriguing. Consider The Machinist the same as Memento, but with a really bad script. it's a shame, it could have been better.

I dunno, I agree that the ending wasn't all that movie had it cracked up to be, still... Bale was freaking awesome. Not only was he awesome, but the director did a great job of creating a surreal world inside the factory and his house. As far as how played the ending was, I was fine with it, but I guess I'm pretty forgiving becuase I didn't mind it in Secret Window either. I guess if I'm enjoying the movie while sort of knowing how it's going to end, then its done its job. Bale's performance and the surrealism of it all is enough for me to forgive the lackluster ending. I'm totally pWning this one.

-Elliott

That kind of twist has been around long before Tyler Durden.

The fact that Ivan wasn't real was not the twist. It was fairly obvious from the beginning that he didn't exist. The twist was WHY Trevor invented him.

But i LOVED this movie. I think Bale deserves a nomination.