American Psycho - the title says it all

Rating: 9/10 (14 July 2005)

Christian Bale leapt into the public eye with his stunning, dead-eyed performance as Patrick Bateman, the higher-class of serial killer. I agree entirely with one of the review citations on the video case, 'Best movie monster since Hannibal Lecter.' Bateman is darkly humorous at times, but like a true psychopath, he feels only for himself and requires instant and full gratification, and the lengths he goes to in order to achieve this are truly shocking. The yuppy lifestyle of the Eighties is beautifully epitomised by Bale - one of my personal favourite actors - and captured by Mary Harron, who did a brilliant job with the film. Supporting performances by Reese Witherspoon, Samantha Mathis and Jared Leto et al ensure that Bale is not left to carry the burden alone, but when he has to he does it in style. Leo DiCaprio displaced Bale for the part before Bale won it back, and judging by his performance, he was the right man for the job. Ultimately, like the Lecter movies the critics compared it to, this is not simply a tale of gore and frenzy, but a tale of light and dark, woven together inextricably in a single insane mind. Simple tasks that Bateman performs every day remind us that he is still, to a degree, normal, and that there is part of him in all of us, for better or for worse. Brilliant, brutal stuff.