In the Really Real World (Possible Spoilers, But I'm Not Sure)

Rating: Null/10 (4 September 2001)

There has been much debate on the issue of whether or not the events in the film truly happen (within the context of the film, of course) or whether they are all in Bateman's mind. The ambiguous ending sheds no light on this particular issue, and I think that was a smart choice for Mary Harron to make--however, I think that this issue is, aside from the misogyny and sex, one of the main reasons that so many people hate this movie.
My take on the issue is this. We have a main character who is also the narrator of the film, and we see the events in the movie through his eyes (Bateman is in every scene except one). Okay. We have to rely on Bateman and his immediate surroundings for all our knowledge about the world he lives in. The problem here is that Bateman is insane, a point the title alone makes very clear. So what the viewer is left with is an unreliable narrator, a character whose perception might be off but who wants or needs to tell his story anyway. Following that theory, the only thing about Bateman that we can really trust in is the fact of his insanity, so *anything* is possible.
I think that all the murders in the film really do happen, with the exception of the shooting spree near the film's end (that one I haven't quite figured out). Bateman only feels alive when he kills--it is the only real thing in his world--so I believe in his perception of those events. However, just like the consequences of the murders, the ordinary world of work and drugs and parties is nebulous and not so clearly defined. Those are details that Bateman can skim over because they are Not Important, and nothing is important to Bateman but fulfilling his own homicidal urges. As the character himself states, there *is* no Patrick Bateman; however, there is a serial killer who is locked in that persona as if it were an Armani straitjacket. When the killer emerges from this facade, *that* is real--as real as we're ever going to get within the context of the film. And don't forget, this film is a satire of a cross-section of Eighties culture that was built on materialism, the very essence of false security and surrealistic social values. The real yuppies for whom Bateman serves as composite would have sold their grandmothers for reservations at Dorsia. How "realistic" is that?