Starts Off Very Strong...Then Falls Apart

Rating: 7/10 (19 April 2000)

I just got back from a screening of the new Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol) film, American Psycho. I am of mixed feelings when it comes to this film. I read the novel by Bret Easton Ellis before seeing this film, and I think that potentially changed my final opinion of this film. So keep that possible bias in your mind while reading this review.
When entering this film, I really didn't know what to expect. I really did enjoy the novel American Psycho and I didn't know how the point of the film could truly be expressed even by Harron, who had done only one feature to this point, although it was an amazing one. I settled in and began to take it all in. The film starts of with a relatively humorous tone...very light compared to the novel's strait-laced opening. It basically introduces Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) as your everyday-high-end-yuppie-who-kills-people-on-the-side kinda guy. It lets us get acquainted with Bateman's friends, loves, and co-workers as well. Not too far into the film though, it begins it's slight descension into surreality and nightmarish scenes (don't worry though, the violence in the film is a mere shell of the over-the-top-near-unfilmable violence in the novel, in fact nearly all the violence happens off screen. Toward the beginning of slide, the film keeps up it's satirical and very humorous look...then it becomes more dark and takes a more serious look at the goings on. By the end, the viewer has lost touch with what is real in the film and very confused about what to feel for Bateman.
I think that the most impressive thing about the film is the combination of the lead performance and the cinematography in the film. Christian Bale, as Patrick Bateman, is amazingly great. It is one of the most oddball performances I have seen, but it is also the most outstanding I have seen as well. The fluctuation between outright insanity to social restraint, with a melange of emotions in there, is quite simply remarkable. Now none of the other performances merit as much acclaim. William Defoe as Detective Donald Kimble,following Bateman's case, also registers to a lesser extent in a subtle performance that is the closest the film has to a real person. Chloe Sevigny has a role that some found impressive, but I find just lacking all around. Ditto for Jared Leto and Reese Witherspoon who barely register in basically cameo length roles.
The other aspect of the film that really got me was the cinematography of American Psycho. The lighting cast upon Patrick gives him "split-faces", kinda like Jeckyll and Hyde syndrome. In addition there are just peculiar, but catching scenes of cinematography..such as noir-ish looking cigarette smoke hanging in the air and various camera angles that just lend themselves to the feeling in the film. The direction on the other hand wasn't nearly as impressive. It seems as though Harron knows what to do to convey the feeling of the book for like the first 45 minutes, but then it spirals out of control, becoming a (too) dark fall of a yuppie. It doesn't help that the pacing toward the last 30 minutes is completely off...there is about 15 minutes of monologues about Bateman's flaws, then a horrific murder scene, then close with another 15 minutes of dialogue. The screenplay, while the pacing was off...the reason why the film's pacing was off, does really do the best possible job of getting the point of the book across, and comes very close to pinning down the exact feeling of the book, except for the self-indulgent finale.
Overall, I would say that it is a film that you could probably wait for video or DVD. But if you are a fanatic of "I Shot Andy Warhol" or of the book American Psycho, try to make out to the theatre as soon as possible.
My Rating : 7/10