A nice adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis' controversial book

Rating: 9/10 (19 May 2000)

Having read the book on number of occasions, I was suspicious of how this book can be transformed to the silver screen without it losing it's edge.

After that, I was pleased to note that the director and screen writer have done a great job in selecting and building up the scenes yet preserving the overall storyline of the book which, in essence, was a satire of late 1980's nihilistic culture and society.
As far as screenplay goes, I especially liked the little gimmick of having P. Bateman do the "record introductions" of the book while playing a totally another scene. Bale presents a totally believable Patrick Bateman, delivering a stunning performance. His performance sadly overcomes the performances of other actors in key roles, but this for me did not present a problem, as I viewed the film as being very lead role centric, anyway.
Although compared to the book the gore factor was downplayed in the movie, it was depicted in a way that conveyed well the essence of Bateman's character yet kept the movie in a class that doesn't end up being raped by censors.
All in all, I was very pleased by the adaptation, and can even recommend it to anyone not having read the book itself as a truly chilling horror comedy / satire.