Pretty much a one-dimensional character study, AMERICAN PSYCHO falters in the third act.

Rating: Null/10 (5 October 2000)

AMERICAN PSYCHO follows the tale of a psychotic serial killer who tries hard (extremely hard  Bale's performance is near perfection) to succeed in a corporate society. But soon this phony world he despises, and uses merely as a cover to his murderous exploits, begins to envelope Patrick, and he finds himself trapped in a torturous façade of his own creation. Enough to sustain an hour and a half? Nope.
PSYCHO presents a unique narrative structure, but it doesn't work. If this were a `Hollywood' movie, the first two acts would be devoted to how and why Bateman entered this cutthroat yuppie world and how he began to succeed, despite his reprehensible motives. But instead, the movie begins with Bateman already a success. We find him nearing the downward slope of his relationship with this phony world. As such, the movie really has nowhere to go and nowhere to take us. The damn thing is over before it begins.
By the third act, we're begging for a payoff and nothing substantial arrives. The denouement is too subtle for just having spent an hour and a half invested in this thing. Mary Harron's stylish and confident directing coupled with Bale's exceptional performance provide for a few stimulating scenes, but only goes so far.