It's a wild world we live in.

Rating: 9/10 (29 June 2008)

I think that I've hardly seen a movie that is capable of depicting just how "man eats man" nowadays. Maybe Sweeney Todd did but it was a musical comedy and I wouldn't compare that movie to American Psycho.
Still, what was disturbing about the movie is that every now and then, I could sympathize with the main "protagonist". I saw another movie with him as the 1st role and I have to say he was poor into it. This movie however told me not to judge an actor by a single movie. Sure sometimes he looked a little robotic but that's what happens when you're DIRECTED.
This movie shows all sorts of truths about the everyday man that sometimes, I feel like anyone could be the mad killer. Anyone could suddenly walk up and shoot an old lady in the chest or start a killing spree just because they "felt like killing". We're so very weak yet we're so very strong. We're given all the tools to be judge and guilty.
I found myself looking at the protagonist as some kind of hero, up until the end of the movie, where I found it almost cruel to see that all of this had been but in his mind. The girl opening up his note book seemed indication enough that this all had been nothing but Bateman's subconscious hacking at his mind. Driving him crazy with thoughts of mutilating women and using them as his sex slaves.
Then again, this is maybe what a "hero" is. That's all a hero could be in our time where anything is brought up as a grand event. From the slightest birth to the worse death. Everything is preached, even the serial killers are preached at some point. This is why this movie is so effective: People end up wanting to see him kill people. Hell, when I heard the movie was about a guy just killing people because he felt like it, I wanted to see it.
It's such a beautiful way to end this kind of fantastical adventure by telling you: "Wouldn't you just like that? To think he's killed all these people and got away with it?" I think even though I haven't spoken of the movie much, you should see it. It's a must for anyone having personal doubts about how well our society is currently built.
I'm a Canadian and I still was able to see the references to the American dream depicted within this movie. I paid more attention to how well the whole thing rolled, up till the credits I was on the edge of my seat, always wanting to see more.
A let-down some might say? I think it was more like a slap to the face.