Almost perfect despite the ugly storyline

Rating: 7/10 (24 October 2002)

Oh, it could have been a very very bad movie indeed. The infamous novel is very horrifying and contains the most graphic descriptions of murder and mayhem I have ever read. Oliver Stone, who was to direct, probably would have made a much darker movie with the violence turned up at least a notch or two.
As it is, Mary Harron has chosen not to be too graphic but stays tasteful all through the picture, even when the action gets bloody. And there is still plenty of gushing gore and since you don't see everything, the impact of the murders, when they arrive, is even more immediate. However, don't expect a slasher movie.

But at the center of it all is Christan Bale as Patrick Bateman. Shallow, self-aware, greedy, narcissistic and completely nuts! As a portrait of a man who has no soul and only exists when he can experience the `high' of murder or have the most stylish business card in his firm, his performance is truly chilling. He is machine, not human, who delights in others pain and degradation, except for one scene in his apartment with his sweet secretary. When he realizes that a murderous rage may be imminent he tells her to get home because `he might hurt her'. Hmmm, in what sense one may wonder? Just kidding. Anyway, at that point, there is a subtle sense that he MIGHT be salvaged by this girl and that he longs for a life that is real.

Christian Bale was apparently not a first choice for the part but seeing him here I doubt that anyone could be a better choice (certainly not Leonardo DiCaprio). He is excellent. Actually I didn't know he had it in him and thought of him as a child actors who's work as an adult had been, at best, indifferent. Clearly playing the part of Bateman is a challenge and had American Psycho been a turkey, it could most certainly had been one nail in his career coffin. Brave man! The other parts are also well casted and well played, but it is Bale who has the center stage.

Praise must also go to Mary Herron who handles this unpleasant story in a manner as to say: Look, Bateman is a man just like most other men but he just go a little bit further. The script that she and Guinevere Turner has fashioned is an extremely interesting look at male behavior. However, if there is something amiss, it is the lack of someone remotely sympathetic. ChloÃ« Sevigny is the exception but she is too bland to be really interesting. All the others are people you would cross the street to avoid! That way you are never very upset when one of Batemans victims `gets it' because you don't really care. But otherwise excellent!