lame attempt at portraying a real psychopath

Rating: 5/10 (11 May 2005)

*****Warning contains spoilers********** I saw this last night on showcase expecting it to be a more realistic portrayal of the serial killer / psychopath epoch but instead what we got was a movie which had a surreal / comic book character to it. It is as if the whole movie was a dream. But it wasn't..
I say this for the following reasons:
Bateman's personality was a little to strange for a psychopath. It is as if the director was trying too hard. A little more subtlety would have been better. IE when he has the prostitutes over at his apartment and goes on that monologue about phil collins. Or the parts when he is talking to the investigator and seems visibly disturbed or uneasy, and the detective is completely oblivious. A common misconception is that psychopath is someone who is insane. The only difference between a psychopath and a non-psychopath is that a psychopath does not empathize with other people. Though a lot of them will learn to "fake it" over the years. In its extreme case, they will see another person as no different than an object. The part when Bateman made reference to Ed Gaines is a classic: "Ed Gains would see a girl and think two different things. I can take this girl out and show her a good time, or I can cut her head off".
The other part I found totally ridiculous, was how Batemen committed all those over the top murders of people and all the other background characters seemed oblivious. Again I think the director was really trying to hard. especially at the end when he kills the old woman, the police officers (which just happened to be parked next to a gas tank which causes a huge explosion!?!? wtf!? ) the guard etc. etc..
I can go on and on about psychopaths, and why it was appropriate for Bateman to be a CEO as research has shown that psychopaths often do well in leadership roles etc.
bottom line, this is a very weak movie with an even weaker ending.