My take

Rating: Null/10 (5 November 2004)

The film uses symbolism to describe multiple things, i.e the social climate, as well as the Bateman character inside and out. He's externally appearing as hip and successful. Internally, he knows he's just a little schmuck among other little schmucks, who all "promote" themselves to Vice Presidents of one of many firms on Wall Street. Those in the brokerage business know that titles as "President" or "Vice President" on business cards are just written to impress clients. A one-man business office, can have a card that reads 'President" even if he lives at the poverty level. Bateman is aware of his precarious, inferior, real status, and tries to shore up his inner fear of failure by external props and obsessions, such as dress, grooming, ability to make reservations at expensive places, etc. He can only "defeat" those weaker than him and all his victories happen in his fantasy, as a defense mechanism against his strong sense of inadequacy. Anytime he gets put-down or made to feel small in any way, he becomes (inside) a raging, fearful, trembling little guy, and -to compensate-indulges in orgies of "power fantasies of murder and omnipotence" which he expesses by sketching them out in his calendar,kept at his desk drawer. I believe that the pages of his calendar his secretary finds, are the clue to what's really going on with Bateman. The camera closes-up on the pages, almost empty, with one or two appointments penciled-in per day, sometimes none(meaning very few clients, which means very little money), further showing one grisly drawing, which becomes more and more such drawings as the days and months go on. I believe that his increasing anxiety and anger over the measly business he was generating is exressed in those drawings. His self-defense is fantasizing of himself as all powerful, above all others, and he draws it-he fantasizes all the time, and he snaps under the tension: He can't stop the ever-more violent fantasies, until he comes to believe them, feels the fear of being caught for his imaginary deeds, and tries to get help by confessing. Another clue is that his lawyer had seen the supposedly dead Paul Allen, which really tell us that the murder and the detective was only in Bateman's mind. It is as if the movie plays in two tracks at the same time, Bateman's head, and the true reality. It is heavily based on psychology and the pathological compensating mechanisms one can have for severe feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. Perhaps the movie wants to show us in the face of Bateman the broader view of today's success figures, who appear as beautiful, composed, and powerful as Bateman appeared, while inside they're aware of their limitations, which make them rage and worry.