Stylish thriller that ultimately doesn't add up

Rating: 6/10 (15 January 2008)

This is one of the those movies I like less the more I think about it. I gave it a 7 shortly after I saw it. Not a great movie, a little gratuitous, but with a lot to recommend it. I boasts a top notch cast led by a compelling performance from Christian Bale. It's visually beautiful if at times grizzly. And, for those of us who survived the era, there's a certain perverse nostalgia for New York in the '80's.
Having slept on it, however, I had to come back today and pull my vote down to a 6. The strong parts remain, but the weak ones grow more blatant with reflection. I have two major complaints:
1) The portrayal of men in the movie is predictably dismal. They're all shallow and horrible and the movie is not without the faintest hint that the men only differ from the homicidal protagonist in the degree of their violence and contempt. I don't know many men like this. In a movie purportedly about the human psyche, such a skewed understanding of the "norm" is a substantial flaw.
2) Ultimately, it stretches credibility too far. How can he possibly get away with all this? Perhaps I missed something. There's a mistaken identity thread that runs through the movie, but even that doesn't seem sufficient to explain the movie's ultimate outcome.
If it wasn't for this site's obsession with "spoilers', I could go into more detail, but many aspects - large and small - just don't ring true.
American Psycho is a stylish thriller worth seeing if only for the magnificent transformation of Bale. He is very good. But if you're looking for a deep probing of the human psyche - or even a plausible one - look elsewhere.