An Ideal Complement

Rating: Null/10 (17 April 2000)

American Psycho is a remarkable adaptation of Ellis' book. It would have been SO easy to make this into a slasher flick, or a standard horror flick, or to add some kind of commonplace intrigue, but Mary Harron didn't do that. She managed to maintain the single most powerful emotion of the entire piece -- despair. The voiceovers delivered by Christian Bale are perfectly in sync with the book. I was surprised to see Bale delivering a few of the monologues vocally, but you know, such an occurrence while transitioning from book to film isn't a surprise and Bale delivers them with a crazed precision and enthusiasm that I loved.
One of the cornerstones of the book was the incredibly inhuman violence perpetrated by Patrick Bateman and a lot of this is skillfully rendered in the film just offscreen, or suggested in a way that was far more frightening and powerful than just-show-us could have been. Here's an example. Bateman picks up a pretty blonde woman. They talk briefly as they walk and the next scene is the next morning. Bateman's in his office, absent-mindedly fondling a lock of blonde hair, which he quickly stuffs in a pocket as someone comes in. Certainly Bateman is nuts, of that we are assured when he kills Paul Allen, but we only start to uncover just how totally disconnected he is as the film unfolds. I refer you to a scene that I call "Sherbet". Our first real glimpse at the creature beneath his skin. But on the gross-o-meter, this would be maybe a three out of ten. We've tolerated much, much worse and not been THAT offended.
I liked it. I especially liked that it's showing in the same theaters as American Beauty. Oh, that just thrills me. I wonder what kind of crossover mistakes will happen...