The man behind the mask !!!

Rating: 9/10 (2 June 2015)

It is very difficult to pinpoint the genre that American Psycho belongs to. It can be called a horror film, a psychological thriller, a social commentary, a strange character study, a film- noir thriller,a black comedy,etc. But no matter what you call it, it certainly is one thing and that is disturbing. Christian Bale takes off the facial masque at the beginning of the film and what follows is utterly disturbing and gruesome.
The film is based on the novel of the same name written by Bret Easton Ellis and it is set in the 1980s. The primary theme of the storyline is to underline in an exaggerated way how some people belonging to the elite upper class of society get driven by greed, lust for power, materialism and uncontrolled ambition to the point where they almost lose their humanity completely. In order to justify and validate the impression that they want others to have of them and they have of themselves, they go to absolutely disturbing lengths and violate other people. But all this wouldn't have worked had the film not been a great character study and had the film not involved a fascinating performance by Christian Bale playing the role of Patrick Bateman. We see that Bateman is not only trying to hide his true self from others but also from his own self. Thus in order to convince himself that he is better than others and not inferior in any way and also to hide his true nature from himself, Bateman treats others in the most disturbing manner possible.
This is without a doubt, one of the best performances in Christian Bale's career. He manages to expertly portray both sides of the character of Bateman. He is on one hand extremely suave and debonair looking, but on the other hand also manages to bring the requisite amount of violence and ruthlessness in his performances. His facial expressions change very quickly and viciously all the time to accentuate the fact that his character is always pretending to be one thing or the other in front of everyone else. Some of his screams and gestures in the film will make the sensitive viewers have nightmares.
The film has a very dreamy look and feel about it in a noirish sense. The director Mary Harron manages to conjure black comedy in the midst of all the madness for which the adapted screenplay and original novel also have to be admired. She also manages to end the film in a very artistically ambiguous manner. She asks the viewer to make his/her mind up about what really happened and leaves the door open for multiple interpretations.
American Psycho is a socially relevant film as well as a disturbing character study. The direction is very good and the central performance is fascinating. This is the kind of film that continues to linger in your thoughts after it ends and is extremely conducive for retrospective analysis.