Rating of
3.5/4
American Psycho review
Daniel Corleone - wrote on 08/30/11
A successful, vain Wall Street executive named Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) has violent tendencies and hang out in luxurious locations with his friends Timothy Bryce (Justin Theroux), David Van Patten (Bill Sage), and Craig McDermott (Josh Lucas). A detective named Donald Kimball (Willem Dafoe) investigates the disappearance of Allen, one of Bateman’s colleagues. Patrick performs killing sprees ranging from Paul Allen, a blond model, a hooker, cops and more. He likewise dumps his obnoxious girlfriend Evelyn Williams (Reese Witherspoon). Bateman’s assistant Jean (Chloe Sevigny) discovers the horrific drawings of his boss and receives a bizarre call from him. Patrick’s lawyer doesn’t believe his confession with regards to the murders. Some remarkable lines: Patrick Bateman – “Everything failed to subdue me. Soon everything seemed dull: another sunrise, the lives of heroes, falling in love, war, the discoveries people made about each other.” “All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it, I have now surpassed. My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone; in fact, I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape, but even after admitting this there is no catharsis, my punishment continues to elude me and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself; no new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This confession has meant nothing.”
This flick has one of the best soundtracks in a film that I have heard in a while. Having New Order, The Cure, Bowie and other 80’s gem’s was very refreshing and was effective during the film. The direction is amazing, camera angles from innumerable positions. Set locations, wardrobe and settings were beautiful. Its screenplay was exceptional and supporting cast did a superb job. In my viewpoint, Christian Bale was at his very best with this role. Patrick Bateman is a very likable character, a music buff who tells trivia’s about a song or artist before carrying out his evil deed to his victims. Despite its dark subject materialism, greed, envy, egotism, status symbol, self-loathing the movie still injects humor in certain scenes. There are certain days where we all feel negative due to stress, a nuisance at work or on the road, lack of time and other aspects that make us think like Bateman. He exemplifies the person we cannot be and yet in the end, no matter how he confesses or makes amends, society becomes ignorant to what is real. A film that can be repeatedly watched when you are not having a good day and just simply want to laugh at the misfortunes on display. American Psycho may not be acclaimed in terms of popularity or even the reviews from critics; it’s still an entertaining look at how our imaginations run wild in different situations, and how we can deal with it.
