Worth a look if only for Bale's full-on performance.

Rating: 5/10 (8 June 2011)

American Psycho owes more to the 80s than the Wedding Singer, if it was set in the present day it would likely still see some acclaim due to Christian Bale's intense gonzo performance and achieve notoriety due to the scenes of sudden graphic violence, but it is the 80s setting that separates it from the pack.
Christian Bale is Patrick Bateman, a handsome, privileged man with a great job (that he never seems to do), a beautiful fiancé played by Reese Witherspoon (whom he despises) and an immaculate home furnished with only the best and most stylish.
Patrick spends hours in the home gym, on tanning beds and in the bathroom using a vast array of creams, gels and treatments that even metrosexuals might think "too much", he seems the perfect catch, an ideal employee and a great friend – aside from one thing oh all right heaps of things – he's the f*cking titular psycho after all! In this Gordon Gekko era America where Boy George is still deemed supercool everything is a p*ssing contest, colleagues aim to get the best tables at the most exclusive restaurants not for the food but the satisfaction of subtly letting the fact slip to others just for their expression, suggesting the wrong restaurant is perhaps worse than death. In most cases when they actually get to the restaurant their inner cynic won't allow them to enjoy the food anyway.
My favourite line in the film is when someone says "I'm not hungry but I'd like to have reservations someplace", this pretty accurately describes the level most of the characters in American Psycho inhabit.
Everything is like this, the desire for more and better is everywhere: the hottest partner, the nicest apartment in the best spot with the best view, even new business cards that seem exactly the same as the ones next to them are thrown down like gauntlets to be scrutinized and rated with envy and embarrassment – especially if one made the mistake of choosing the off-white over the ivory-white! Each conversation is full of similar one-upmanship, vacuous banal bragging and specious empty statements. At one point Patrick keeps his dinner companions transfixed with line after pandering line about world peace and fairness to others, and far from the eye-rolling treatment that he would rightfully deserve he is congratulated for his obviousness.
Each day is eight or nine hours of sitting in an office not working followed by the inevitable dilemma of where to go to be seen.
Unfortunately aside from being a fairly superficial human being Patrick also battles inner demons, demons that sit on each shoulder and suggest that he do horrible things to random people, things involving axes, chainsaws, agony and dismemberment.
Patrick constantly battles these voices though he fears is fighting a losing battle as his rising hatred and disgust at the state of society requires some form of action. He attempts to keep a grip even though at times it seems the only reasonable course of action is terrible violence and the slaughter of those beneath him. Given the fact that no-one seems to actually pay attention to others at times Patrick casually describes his homicidal thoughts and acts, but these horrific words fall on deaf ears tacked on to vacant heads.
Eventually Naughty Patrick starts winning the battle for booking Patrick's day to day activities, something "normal" society should be wary of. Let's just say if Patrick starts expounding on the merits of a particular musician or band – just run for the door.
The film doesn't have an extremely high body count but some of the visuals are very graphic and shown in some detail. The elaborate façade that Patrick has created once a colleague goes missing and the investigation lead by Detective Donald Kimble (Willem Dafoe) repeatedly circles back to him. The stress Patrick feels in these casual questionings is palpable, as is the sweat that almost immediately forms on his brow as he searches for an excuse to close the Q&A session. It seems the only sane and grounded person around Patrick is his wide eyed and perhaps a little naïve personal assistant Jean (Chloe Sevigny), and eventually Patrick decides to throw her a bone and ask her out for dinner To say more would be unfair, American Psycho isn't so much a horror film as it is a statement of how society has started drowning in its own apathy – at least according to the film – the film sees Patrick take whatever actions necessary to maintain his tenuous connection with sanity and release his frustrations. When a situation gets too stressful for him his go-to exit line is always the same "I have got to return some videotapes.
I found it odd that this film was directed by a woman, given that in general women are treated as mere objects of conquest or lust – when the credits rolled 90% of women aren't even granted last names – I'd think about it more but I need to return some videotapes
Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. A film defined by the 80s, I found the ending to be disappointing, but in reality the film itself only sporadically held my interest. Worth a look if only for Bale's full-on performance.