"I'm in Murders & Executions"

Rating: 10/10 (26 August 2018)

Wow! Just wow! I have seen this movie 3 times since it's release. The first time I saw it I was largely shocked, disturbed, disgusted and wishing I could unsee it. BUT I also was blown away by Christian Bale's performance. Now...I have seen the videos and I've heard the rumors about him being difficult to work with etc...but you have to give credit where it's due - he was absolutely brilliant & amazing in this role. If you have not seen this film you truly have to experience it. I don't condone the goriness or the pornographic material or the extreme violence but viewing it is almost like a study of two things. First of all if for nothing else it's a master acting class. Secondly it's to see an actor perform the role of a lifetime in general but also to see the best performance I believe of Christian Bale's career. I haven't seen all of his films but I've seen most of them and I have to say that even though he is a great actor I don't think any of his other roles come close to this one. I would even go so far as to say that I think it's probably one of the best if not the best performance I've ever seen from any actor ever in all the films I've seen and I've seen a lot. Here is why I think that. He took what I think is possibly one of the most difficult characters to portray and he 1000% nailed it. I think Patrick Bateman would be one of the most difficult characters to portray due to that fact that not only did CB have to commit to this role physically (which is no small thing) he had to find some way to completely get inside the mind of a psychopath and portray that. This role was an extreme challenge because the Patrick Bateman character was acting himself so as to not give away that he was a psychopath. He knew that to be accepted in society he had to act. He was not being his true self so everything about him was an outward act. So not only did Christian Bale have to act like Patrick Bateman - he had to act like an idea of what Patrick Bateman thought he should act like! That is some serious material to master.
The murder scenes are really where you see the truly brilliant talent. It's so terrifyingly unsettling because he kills his victims so violently yet the scene is juxtaposed with extremely over the top humor all while listening to popular upbeat music while it's happening. That is so much for the mind to take in. It's almost like your mind is overloaded and you can't deal with it. But as weird as it sounds it's beautiful to behold.
I didn't think I'd ever watch it again but I did so several years later out of curiousity just to see if my reactions to it had changed...Nope! Still the same. And then several years after that viewing I watched it for a 3rd time the other night when my husband decided to watch it again because he hadn't seen it in years either and was curious to see what he thought after all that time had gone by. My reaction-about the same but yet with an even deeper appreciation of Christian Bale's performance.
I had forgotten about all the other actors who were in it. They did well in their roles as well.
This is one of the films that the more you watch it the more you pick up or notice. The one liners are great "I've got to return some videotapes!" "Have a holly jolly Christmas." So funny! Plus there's other things that you pick up that you didn't notice in previous viewings such as - this time around I noticed that when Christian Bale's character goes to chase that hooker down the hallway he's completely naked yet he found time to put on tennis shoes before he started chasing her. I never noticed that before. Just imagining him putting on his tennis shoes before he goes to kill her it's just ridiculous! It is so funny to me and I completely missed that the last two times I watched it. It's just one more small detail that shows you inside the character's mind.
I'm not one who gets into violence or the exploitation of women and oddly enough I can't even say I liked the film. But I can appreciate a great performance and while I could have done without a lot of those scenes they aren't just gratuitous. They really were necessary to portray this character.
I would highly recommend this film.