Interesting, but too stylised to have any lasting impact.

Rating: Null/10 (11 June 2000)

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!!!

This adaptation of American Psycho is interesting, at times repellent, at times hilarious, yet strangely uninvolving and ultimately lacking in any real satirical bite. Christian Bale delivers a highly stylised performance; when he gives his critiques of Huey Lewis and Genesis prior to committing some atrocity, he reminded me of none other than Jim Carrey in his Ace Ventura days. By the scene where Bateman casually explodes a cop car with his revolver, it is clear that the murders we see - with the possible exception of the homeless man in the alley, and the attempted murder of his secretary - are entirely imaginary. These factors combine to make it less a portrait of a society and culture where surface is everything and more of a chamber piece portrayal of an individual's dysfunctional mind.