This is not an exit.

Rating: Null/10 (10 September 2000)

A film with the history of AMERICAN PSYCHO behind it hardly needs a plot summary but it's still likely a lot of audiences will be surprised by what greets them. The film comes to the cinema with an almost unqualified endorsement from its creator, Brett Easton Ellis. Ellis, whose 1991 novel divided and disturbed audiences, has called Mary Harron's film 95 per cent faithful to the source material.
This is surprising because AMERICAN PSYCHO is a few novels at once: a black comedy about soulless eighties culture; a feminist tome about `crazy insane sexism and misogyny' (the authors words); a trip inside the head of a serial killer. The word `unfilmable' comes to mind, a tired phrase that has been proven wrong too many times before.
To Harron's credit, the film has captured the attention of a strong, rational audience base while avoiding the expected media hoopla. There is no grey area this time around. AMERICAN PSYCHO is played as black comedy and it hits the mark most of the time.
Beginning with a crafty credit sequence that teases the audience, Harron and star Christian Bale proceed to subvert their expectations. Bale hits the perfect note of satire, ridiculing and patronising the idiot Bateman. In a recent interview, Bale said he hung out with yuppies to get a feel for the character and they told him to watch WALL STREET. Life imitates art imitating shallow, empty lives. Forgive the terribly mishandled twist late on (a costly lapse in directorial judgement) and AMERICAN PSYCHO rewards handsomely. One of the best films of 2000.