What Was That, Anyway?

Rating: 4/10 (10 March 2001)

I don't know quite what to do with this movie. Christian Bale plays Patrick Bateman, a young, Wall Street powerbroker type who, in his spare time, enjoys critiquing albums, kinky sex and murder - and not necessarily in that order! Bale - the only actor in the movie of any significance - is actually rather good in the part, as he shows Bateman descending farther and farther into insanity, finally reaching out for help but not being able to find anyone who believes him. He goes a little overboard at times, but then again that's in keeping with the character.
My basic problem with the movie was that I didn't think it ever decided where it wanted to go. It's publicized as a thriller, and as a thriller it's absolutely awful. I first thought that it might be a serious attempt to construct a psychological profile of a serial killer. Forget that. There's no serious attempt to do anything in this movie. It doesn't work too well as a straight thriller either, for one simple reason: there's nothing particularly frightening about it! It simply contains the normal slasher-type violence you would expect in this genre, and, of course, grotesquely mutilated bodies pop up in the most unexpected places - except that, because we've seen these types of movies before, we expect them to pop up! But, on the other hand, maybe this could be looked at as one of those "thrillers" that's so bad it's actually funny. (Or, maybe it's actually intended to be a black comedy. If so, it's not too bad.) And, at times, it really is funny! Let's just say that I spent far more time laughing than I did perched on the edge of my seat!
Aside from Bale's performance (and I'm still not sure if he put on a great comedic performance or a lousy dramatic performance) the supporting cast was mediocre. Willem Dafoe had little to do in the role of Donald Kimball, a police detective who seems to be suspicious of Bateman as he investigates one of the murders, but then seems to do little to follow up on his suspicions except take Bateman out to lunch. The best performance of the weak supporting cast was probably that of Cara Seymour as the prostitute Christie, who becomes a participant in Bateman's kinky games.
So, again, what to do with this? Maybe just forget it and "return the video?" (You have to have seen the movie to understand that reference.) Or maybe that's too harsh. I mean, it isn't terrible; it's just not very good. The combination of a lousy thriller and a not-so-bad comedy (and, I might add, that either way it falls apart with what I thought was a terribly weak ending) gives this a rating of 4/10.