Admirable combination of laughs and fears

Rating: 7/10 (10 May 2007)

Impressive adaptation of the brutal satire detailing early 90's yuppie excess, Bret Easton Ellis's controversial novel comes to sparkling life with equal measures of hilarity and depravity. In ripping the often referenced book for a cinematic reincarnation, director Mary Harron certainly had her work cut out for her. Substituting some of the unbearably graphic images which would fester inside readers heads for a more suggestive style, Harmon brilliantly recreates this hard-edged satire for the silver screen with very few discrepancies.
Thriving off of the psychotically committed effort from lead Christian Bale, American Psycho might not be as bluntly effective as some of it's harsher passages would beckon, but nonetheless remains one of modern Hollywood's most brilliant and scorching satires on the materialistic excess plaguing the late 80's early 90's for many ambitious Americans. It is that memorable time period that is captured so convincingly amidst Bateman's psychotic urges that makes the film larger then it's subject. Many will classify American Psycho as a horror film on the warped mindset behind a serial killer, though it becomes clear by film's end that a sharply cutting comedic commentary on those highly egotistical years play more of a role in describing what makes this violent and sadistic man tick then expected.
In turn, American Psycho becomes a glorious dark comedy, even if a little repetitious, whilst Bale continues to terrify audiences with his disturbingly perfect portrait. It is a character definitely prone to caricature, completely convincing in the rare evil silences we witness when Bales becomes engulfed in his struggling darkness, which viewers will, upon further viewings, analyze further due to an ambiguous ending. Though short of the character study masterpiece I had ideally hoped for, the film will remain a nihilistic joy with stinging psychological sentiment for years to come.