Bale excels in 'merger and acquisitions' (or is that 'murder and executions")

Rating: 10/10 (27 April 2004)

American PSYCHO (2000) **** Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon, Samantha Mathis, Chloe Sevigny, Justin Theroux, Matt Ross, Cara Seymour, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage, Guinevere Turner. Filmmaker Mary Harron attempts the impossible: adapting, with co-scribe Turner, Bret Easton Ellis' controversial blood-drenched satirical 1991 novel with surprising success. Instead of relying on the ghastly acts as the focal point in diluting the gore factor (the audience must fill in the blanks for each act not unlike the original 'Psycho') she instead makes Patrick Bateman – Jack The Ripper in Armani - (Bale in a mesmerizing, darkly funny turn) a hypnotically scary 'merger and acquisitions' (or is that 'murder and executions'?) Wall Street proto-yuppie living large in the late Reagan Eighties to the extreme and caving in to his inner voices by killing at random with elan and irony tongue-through-cheek (trust me you'll never hear Huey Lewis and The News' 'Hip To Be Square' in quite the same way) aplomb. Dare I compare him to 'A Clockwork Orange's Alex? Sure, he's just as maladjusted but not so much at blaming society, although the film does underscore throughout the absurdities of class warfare and contemporary thrillseeking (extreme sports being who has the better looking business card) forsaking identity, which is the key point here even if it means splitting a skull with an axe every now and then. Well scripted and acted ; no easy feat.