Great book, but decent movie...

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2002)

American Psycho was for Bret Easton Ellis a chance to show the materialistic 80's in a different light. The shallow lifestyles of the people during this era were perfectly brought to life in his novel and in Mary Harron's film. Patrick Bateman is just another one of those shallow, successful business men that dominated the scene. However, Patrick had a obsessions and an after hours lifestyle that would sicken and disgust most everyone had they known.
The biggest flaw in the film is it's inability to have the viewer guessing as to whether the horror was real or just imagined. The novel presents the entire story in such a way that the reader does not know if the actual carnage is real or just part of Patrick Bateman's sick imagination. Although the film does try, it does not succeed.
I do respect Mary Harron's choice of using the "less is more" principle when it comes to the violence. The graphic depictions of violence in the novel would have made the film beyond a horror movie and more like a snuff film. The film is good and is worth viewing for those folks that lived during the exciting 1980's like I did.