To the point

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2006)

Patrick Bateman has everything: money, good looks, health, nice apartment, and an easy going high paying job. Beneath this business school success story, however, lies a dark man who knows and even acknowledges that he has everything, but wants more...
Since this is an adaptation you can see this movie as too different things: as an adaptation of the novel, or as just a movie if you haven't read the novel. As a movie it is well done, especially with Bale's frightening performance as the callous Bateman, and it is that with the general ambition that went into the project that overshadows the film's obvious limitations. And there are quite a few of them. I have never read the book, but have heard about it enough to see that the film is aesthetically way below the scope of the novel. The locations and sets simply just barely manage to cut it. However the film is a success due its tone.
The themes, metaphors, and idea of the book presented in such a way that you get the feeling that yes, the filmmakers know the source material, like the source material and put in an honest effort to get it translated to the screen. After all, it is the themes and ideas that matter more than the actual physical look of the film. "Apocalypse Now" looks nothing like Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" - different time period, different locations, etc... - but the fundamental themes of the novel (the stuff that matters most) are there and it is a great movie based off of a great book. With "American Psycho" fans can delight in the adaptation as also being faithful in the aesthetic sense.
However, fans should also be ready to forgive. Think about it, would any major studio release a movie with a seriously f***ed up lead character like Bateman? Author Bret Easton Ellis was himself shot down by publishers before he got his book out, so this isn't mainstream thought and metaphor here. It is un-PC, hard to swallow, but daring in it's ambitions and that is what makes the film good. --- 8/10
Rated R for strong violent content and sex