** Boring and pretentious

Rating: Null/10 (27 March 2001)

Dull as anything could possibly be. Eighties materialism, psycho fascination and American sexual frustration of all kinds have been dealt with many times before this and in many, MANY better ways. Mary Harron's latest does, however, have Christian Bale's dead-on performance as Bret Easton Ellis' titular hero/villain and some nifty production design, not to mention a terrifyingly good performance by Samantha Mathis as a dope fiend who provides Bale with a regular friend-it's probably her best performance ever. The film caused much controversy involving activists and censors for its graphic violence and glorification of serial killers, but in the end it was all much ado about nothing: there isn't enough resembling humanity to be offensive, and it's all undone by an ending that renders the entire film completely invalid.