Might Seem Repulsive but its a Good Intelligent Film

Rating: 9/10 (16 April 2000)

I was waiting for the release of American Psycho when I first saw the trailer, back when I went to see Dogma in 1999. I'm a serious movie buff and when a film looks interesting; I go absolutely insane and desperate waiting for the film to come out. As time went by I started to see comments about people who saw screening at Sundance and so forth. Some comments were positive, some very negative. Nevertheless the good overcame the negative comments.
So the film is finally released and of course I'm anxious to see it. I go to the theater but it's sold out. So the next day I go to the theater and I'm in! As I saw the films I am overwhelmed by the beautiful imagery, style, characters, and so forth. Overall, I was very satisfied. My only complaint was the ending.
The idea of a man killing women in order to maintain a sense of sanity does sound a bit repulsive. Of course feminist groups will protest against this movie but there is a lot of missing information. The character Patrick Bateman doesn't only kill women; he kills men as well. He uses women as meat for sexual pleasures. Once he's done using them he eventually kills them. As for the men, he simply kills them out of jealousy. One thing about Patrick Bateman is that he hates people being more successful than him. So he strives to be superior to everyone. How so? By killing people. Even though some killings of his are rather illogical, some actually do make some serious points. His monologues before he kills his victims will help you decide whether or not his killings carry any sense of logic in them. Still, everything Bateman does has certain intelligence to it.

The ending was a bit of a let down. It seems that recent films tend to strive for the psychological ending, which I love. Fight Club had it; Stir of Echoes had it, the Sixth Sense, and now American Psycho. But American Psycho's lacked something. I am still not sure I understand the ending yet. I could have been that Bateman was actually insane and had to kill everyone to be at ease, or if his killings were all a state of mind- meaning he imagined and believed in them so much he thought they were real. Something that might have improved the film is if we could have seen what Bateman's secretary does after she sees his daily planner.
Chris Bale has simply come a long way from being the kid in Empire from the Sun. His role back then was Oscar worthy, and it's even more apparent that he deserves recognition for his role as an insane-psychopathic Yuppie from the 80s.
Overall the film is simply brilliant. It is a smart film and it is extremely well made. I'm just happy to see that an independent film such as this captivated the interest of many Hollywood mainstreamers. If anything we need more independent movies to get a wider audience. So far this is the best film I've seen so far this year due to a flawless performance by Bale, and the help of great direction. Lets hope it gains the recognition it deserves.