Horror film of American Materialist Society

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 2006)

I first saw this film in the theater and left shaking my head in confusion. Some time later I saw the movie again, and thereafter I have watched it dozens of times (each time picking up on something I never noticed before).
Christian Bale plays an Ivy League graduate working at a prestigious firm in mid-80's New York. He has everything going for him: perfect looks, perfect job, perfect apartment, perfect fiancé played by Reese Witherspoon, but for every perfect element in his life comes a comparison to someone else with better looks (he is often compared another person as a mistaken identidy in which he is offended. Not even his lawyer calls him by the right name), better job (although they are all VP's of the company, yet Jared Leto's character for example always gets the "good accounts"), better apartment (more expensive, better location), or a better fiancé (Samantha Mathis' character being engaged to a seemingly obvious homosexual).
Everything Bale and the rest of the cast of characters do revolves around "fitting in". The night clubs, the coke habits, the luncheons at the best restaurants. In a large part of the scenes we see how society at that time behaves ($500 or so for a lunch in which they all say "not bad" and each provide a credit card, the memorable business card comparison scene which nearly gives Bale a heart attack). Culture and materialism is picked a part in the movie in a very comedic way.
Bale spends most of his time pretending to be someone he's not (fake smiles, fake enjoyment at a Christmas party). However, the movie portrays that in his off time he is picking up hookers only to sleep with them (with praise of his good fortune expected) only to find himself enraged and compelled to murder his victims. Not limited to woman hating, he acts out on his jealousy towards a co-worker all while playing Huey Lewis soundtracks as he seems to be passionate about his 80's music and culture. A homeless man and various animals are even incorporated into his list of victims.
He is able to withstand temptation of his "friends" and more surprisingly his secretary who he invites on a date only to let her leave unscathed. William Dafoe plays a detective who catches him in his lies and confusion.
The film ends in a very eerie way as we don't know if any of the experiences with Bale were real or in his mind. He went from odd behaving to absolutely crazy and the facts are not even facts, but scattered thoughts or undefined realities.
It's one of the few "horror" films I couldn't help but chuckle at throughout the entire sick and twisted duration.