A movie you'll hate to love

Rating: 10/10 (14 April 2000)

American Psycho is by far one of the best films of the year. Many critics and some viewers are claiming that the film is shallow and pathetic...exactly right. And that's the stunning beauty of it all. AP is so deep its shallow and vice versa.
Christian Bale (in a trying-way-too-hard American accent) does a top-notch job playing Patrick Bateman, a rich New York Wall-Streeter who lives an utterly empty life. His fiance (the always excellent Reese Witherspoon)is a drip, his friends are drones, and even the people he passes on the street seem to be pathetic, soulless creatures.
Finally, we see that Patrick DOES find a way of escaping all of this 80s nonsense...through random acts of hideous violence. The first shocking killing, involving a homeless man and (gasp!) his dog, jolts the audience with its intensity..and humor. Patrick's murders (while not that graphic) make you squeemish because the director has done such a superb job of making them FUNNY. You're laughing as people are chased with axes, nail guns, chainsaws, etc. This is BLACK COMEDY at its finest. You hate yourself for loving every delicious moment of mayhem.
The overall point to the story is that in the world of excess, a heavy price of being "not there" comes along with all of the wonderful restaurant reservations and business cards with gold lettering. Some may say the meaning is shallow and overplayed, but I truly think the filmmakers accomplish what they set out to do...show that everyone has to find their identity somehow...and hopefully it won't be in the psychotic ways that Bateman does.
One final note...unlike the similar in message Fight Club, this one's twist ending is NOT a total betrayal to the entire movie. It really works and even drives the film's message further!
grade: 10/10------one of this year's best