Nice business cards...

Rating: 7/10 (31 March 2007)

My first question after belatedly watching American Psycho is this: why isn't Christian Bale more revered? Every time I have seen him in a film he has been excellent, and as Patrick Bateman he was nothing short of electric. The film itself made a valiant stab at capturing the essence of the novel whilst also structuring it as a workable movie for the casual viewer, and was never going to be as jaw-dropping as the book. However, a top class cast and some shrewd writing and directorial decisions delivered a film that was better than I expected it to be, and Bale's mesmerising Bateman made sense of the pointlessness of his actions, creating a monster that needs no back-story  he is simply what he is and does what he does because he wants to. This lack of cohesive motive actually works in his favour and it was nice to see no compromise ending. Good film.