61
Metascore
32 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterA brilliantly honed tale of dementia, starring a skeletal Christian Bale as a tormented insomniac wasting away and terrorized by his irreal existence.
- 80Film ThreatFilm ThreatThe Machinist is so brave and visually impressive, it should demand an audience.
- 75Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversDirector Brad Anderson tightens the screws of suspense, but it's Bale's gripping, beyond-the-call-of-duty performance that holds you in thrall.
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliA harrowing experience for those to whom this sort of story appeals.
- 75Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittBale is brilliant.
- 70VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyAn intense, precision-controlled psychological mystery built around a very creepy lead performance by Christian Bale.
- 50L.A. WeeklyL.A. WeeklyIn a way, though, it’s all Bale's show. Withering down to an alarming 120 pounds, he delivers a deeply obsessed performance that leaves us both fascinated and sickened.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumBale exists all too large under the circumstances, a well-fed actor playing at emaciation for the sake of a fiction about a character whose torment is as unreadable as his vertebrae are countable.
- 40Village VoiceDennis LimVillage VoiceDennis LimThe Machinist has no meat on its bones, and we've seen it all before.
- 30The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinUnrelentingly dreary, and seemingly destined to be remembered, if at all, as that movie Christian Bale lost a full third of his body weight for. It doesn't deserve any better.