A pretty loser, but NOT a murderer.

Rating: 8/10 (26 April 2001)

Please note, spoilers follow.
I am bemused reading through many of these reviews: not one person has stated succinctly that Patrick Bateman is NOT A SERIAL KILLER. Psychopathic or "psycho" he may or may not be; the definition of that term has become ambiguous due to massive pop usage. But during this film he does not murder a soul.
Throughout the film I was absorbed though not decisively impressed. Fairly well-acted, I thought, though irritatingly plastic and shallow in most spots. And prettily done: sharp lines, chiseled physiques, alluring dishes at various chic minimalist restaurants. But surely there must be a point; what can it be? The movie is clearly not about psychopaths and their mentality, it is about the 80's and superficiality. Then by what many reviewers have called "a true cop-out of an ending" or "the weakest ending imaginable", the movie was validated for me. Bateman had in fact not committed any of the murders so mechanically and attractively (if I'm not psycho myself for using that adverb) portrayed in the film. Bateman was, though mentally disturbed for certain and delusional of course, simply too lame to follow through with the murders he passionately imagined.

Others have cited his "inability to receive recognition" for his crimes. No, that's not it! He didn't commit the crimes, don't you see? They were fantasies. They were cherished illusions, delusions, dreams, whatever you want to call them. It's pretty clear, though debatable, that he believed in them all the while, which marks him as a clear mental case. But Patrick was an unreliable narrator, and we were fools to assume that his visions coincided with whatever objective reality the director was putting forth. Specifics? Well, beyond the fact that the police didn't nab him easily after his last shooting spree, there are the facts that the attorney had seen Paul Allen in London (this could be chalked up to the recognition gimmick, but not correctly, I don't think), and his visit to Allen's old apartment, barren of carcasses, blood, or crime-scene effects.
Given the fact that the crimes were just dreams, this movie makes a great deal more sense to me. Bateman's character epitomizes his crowd: weak, empty, shallow, void of all human qualities. He is too weak and empty to affect others' lives in any true fashion, and this includes affecting their deaths. He's the lamest of the lame. And THAT'S the point of American Psycho -- not a brilliantly original point, but neither a senseless parade of misogyny and murder.