Businessman Bateman makes a killing, both at work and at home.

Rating: 9/10 (6 July 2010)

Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is a wealthy, good-looking Wall Street businessman with his own office, a pretty PA (Chloë Sevigny), an attractive fiancé (Reese Witherspoon), a desirable Manhattan apartment, and a fine collection of sharp implements and power tools, perfect for hacking up hookers and ridding himself of pesky professional competition.
American Psycho, based on the controversial cult novel by Bret Easton Ellis, is a razor-sharp satire of the yuppie lifestyle that will forever be associated with the late '80s, an era when success was often measured by how much money you earned, who you knew, what suit you wore, and which restaurants you could get reservations at.
Bale's narcissistic Bateman epitomises the yuppie stereotype—self-obsessed, materialistic, power hungry, and predatory, his life is dedicated to feeling superior to all those around him, no doubt because that, secretly, he knows that he is devoid of genuine worth: his position in the company is shared by several indentikit employees (so alike that there are frequent cases of mistaken identity); his fiancé is having an affair (but then so is he); and the only person who truly likes him (apart from himself) is his secretary, who he stupidly deems unworthy of his magnificence. Deep down, he's a very insecure and confused individual.
To compensate for his shallow existence, Bateman extends his lack of empathy and ruthlessness much further than most: he not only humiliates and dominates all around him, both at work and at play, but he also kills!
Both the book and film have been accused of being overly violent and misogynistic, and it is true that many scenes are extremely disturbing and very gory, with extreme brutality frequently dished out casually by an emotionally disconnected Bateman; but not only is American Psycho a very unsettling affair, it is also a very funny one (particularly for those with an extremely dark sense of humour), with hilarious satirical displays of oneupmanship between the high-rolling yuppies, amusing deadpan critiques of popular music as Bateman casually prepares for more bloody mayhem, and towards the end, several scenes of sheer unbridled lunacy (try keeping a straight face as Bateman attempts to feed a cat to an ATM).
In the film's closing chaotic moments, events become very confusing, with a crazed Bateman finally revealing all to his lawyer over the phone; the very next day, however, we learn that the lawyer has not only taken Bateman's confession to be a sick joke, but also seems to believe him to be someone else entirely. At face value, this all seems terribly unlikely, but it does adhere nicely to the reoccurring theme of lack of individuality; it is also a deliberate ploy by director Mary Harron to allow her audience to come to their own conclusions about Bateman's predicament. Is he free to carry on killing or has all that we have witnessed only occurred in Bateman's unhinged mind? Hell, by the closing credits, we aren't even sure if Bateman is actually who he thinks he is.
Usually, I don't like ambiguous endings that much, but in such a demented, twisted, schizophrenic movie, it seems like the only satisfactory way to finish.