"I simply am not there"

Rating: Null/10 (6 December 2004)

American Psycho is the portrait of a group of individuals within a certain scene in a particular era. The very fact, that those horrible occurrences take place on the top floor of society, and the fact, that this era has passed us by only a short while ago, lets the audience shiver. Here is someone, who enjoys all the material privilege in the world and who is yet all alone and emotionally empty. But is not the fact, that his mind is crammed full with the surface of things, the cause for his indifferent and inhuman behaviour towards his fellow men and (particularly) women? Is not the very fact, that he creates himself a world of norms and values solely from worldly goods (clothes, shape of body, restaurants, food etc.), the cause for his lack of self? The competition for the most impressive business card, suit, restaurant, apartment or whatsoever, which Patrick Bateman usually looses against his fellow workers at Wall Street, forces him to develop substitutive types of satisfaction, which will help him regain power, self-consciousness and inner peace of mind. In his world, those substitutes are sex and murder, both happenings', in which he can (permanently) suppress his opponent' in the one or the other way.
The first disturbing element in this movie, which unleashes the most extreme forms of the American Dream, is the (more or less) willingness of the women to offer themselves as a piece of flesh to the materialistically superior man, who, due to the subordinate behaviour of the respective woman, regains (sexual) power. Another disturbing factor is, that those people, who are aware of Bateman being a serial killer (Bateman's lawyer, the broker), do not report him to the police, and that because of the simple fact, because he belongs to the most 'civilized' class of people (in the eyes of society). What a scandal would that become, if a young man, who has enjoyed the best of homes and education (Harvard) turns out to be a mass murderer? Such things simply do not exist, at least in the preoccupied world of the media. Whereas it is quite common here to read stories about people from the lower classes to commit such horrible crimes (due to a lack of financial security) one rarely reads about an upper-class serial killer. And, as one can read in the first lines of the book, Price tells the reader, why society can not afford to loose his kind: I am creative, I am young, unscrupulous, highly motivated, highly qualified. That is why society can not afford to loose me'. Not even, if I am a serial killer! What must disturb the reader/audience really, is the scene, when Bateman enters Allen's apartment, and he sees nothing but the white and clean walls. The bodies have been eliminated like an error in a pc system, as if they never existed, as if those killings never occurred, as if Paul Allen in fact moved out of the apartment, to have it handed over to a young and innocent couple, so they can enjoy the miraculous view over Central Park now.
A last disturbing element is, that still, after Bateman has admitted all his horrible crimes on the phone and face to face, no one believes him or takes what he says seriously. In this particular social "league", it simply does not matter, if he committed those crimes or not. Still it seems of much more significance to keep up appearances of glamour and glory, in order not to let that world of material perfection fall apart. Therefore, Bateman, who is a culprit on the one hand, but who is also a victim of that system on the other, in which worldly goods take possession of mind and soul, is an easy target to sacrifice, so the shiny world of materialism and superficiality will not loose its stability. So, as all his victims, who disappeared like that, he and his psychological trouble are simply being ignored. He simply is not there, as he already states at the very beginning of the film: "I simply am not there". No one in that world of superficial riches is actually in a state of being (except of course for the money, that is being in a constant state of (ex)change), which is also why there are no limits left whatsoever.