Flawed, but entertaining(contains spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (19 April 2000)

As an avid fan of the book, despite its many flaws, I was eager to see what Mary Harron had made of Ellis' work. I found the film to be very different from the novel- less about Patrick Bateman's almost gleeful spree of sex and murder in high society, and more about a rich man watching his life dissolve as he comes to realize how empty everything and everyone in his world is. I found Christian Bale's portrayal of Bateman to be almost as I visualized from the book- handsome, spoiled, wealthy, but with a certain coldness and vacuousness that allows him to take lives without thought. I see now why Harron insisted (even to the point of almost quitting the film) that Bale play Bateman- he was perfect for the role. I am not among those who thought Bateman was imagining the killings (the book makes them too real), and, for me, the lack of violence in the film, or rather, the boiling down of the murders largely into one montage sequence, really detracted from the shock that the book carried with it. In addition, for a film that was supposed to give something of a "feminist" treatment of Ellis' novel, I found the female characters, especially Reese Witherspoon's Evelyn, to be sadly underwritten and under-developed. Evelyn is reduced to a whiney sideshow in the film; her relationship with Patrick was much more central to establishing the emptiness of the characters in the book, and leaving her out of all but 2-3 scenes in the film was a major mistake. Instead, Jean, Bateman's secretary, a minor character in the novel, is given much more screen time. I didn't see what the issue was over the "censored" sex scene- anything that was cut wasn't obvious, and you still get the feeling of Bateman's utter self-absorption. The cultural references (especially a particularly humorous monologue on Huey Lewis & the News) made for a good showcasing of the characters' fascination with trendiness, money, and power, while still showing how culturally empty the majority of the characters here are. A good film, a bit rushed in parts (another 30-45 minutes could have easily been added), but ultimately, much like the novel, a flawed, but entertaining ride. 6.5 stars out of 10.