Based upon the controversial 1990 novel by Bret Easton Ellis, 'American Psycho' comes to us from director Mary Harron and writer Guinevere Turner. The film took many years to get off the ground due to its source material containing very graphic material, particularly against women leading to many protests since its release. The film adaptation however was met with slightly less backlash though it took many years after its 2000 release to cinemas before it became a bigger hit. It now stands as a cult classic inspiring many modern filmmakers today and becoming the personal favorite film of many critics over the years, including myself.
Both the novel and film revolve around a young businessman during the Wall Street boom of the 1980's named Patrick Bateman. We first see him as no different than your usual Gordon Gecko archtype of the time, with slicked back hair and several thousand dollars worth of beauty and fashion items adorning both Bateman and his posh New York apartment. However, it soon becomes obvious that Patrick is a severely disturbed individual who begins to engage in homicidal and sexual depravity and by the end has unraveled to the point that even we as the audience can't really be sure of what's going on.
For a small budget, the film has a well known and large cast of actors such as Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon, Willam Dafoe, and of course, Christian Bale in his first major role after playing the lead in Spielberg's 'Empire of the Sun' back in 1987. The film also was able to gain the rights to a lot of hit music from that time and is by far one of the best film soundtracks out there. I keep the tracklist on my MP3 player on a loop quite frequently and I highly recommend it if you're any kind of fan of 80's music. The other interesting aspect of its budget is that everything feels larger and grander in scale than the film's premise would have you believe. For the most part, it is a slasher or serial killer thriller story but it feels like a major studio production with A list actors and production value.
The film obviously could not adapt the novel as faithfully as one would think given its extreme nature (Even I had to put it down at times). The film is actually rather subtle when it comes to the gore or murder scenes throughout despite their frequency. If anything the film has more graphic sexual content than violence which was unexpected and it did get the film initially slapped with an 'NC-17' rating before minor trims were made. Still though, these scenes while very intense do not retract from the overall themes of the film and its source material. The film is ultimately a personal look into someone's brain and even to this day one is left scratching their head wondering just what the hell happened? Did Bateman commit his crimes? It seems at times others see items covered in blood or something that would clearly get him caught, but then in the next scene it will be simply brushed off or even at times if you look carefully, can vanish entirely leading one to question their own sanity trying to figure this movie out.
It's ultimately these moments along with the film's surprisingly large amount of humor and great writing throughout that make 'American Psycho' well worth watching. It's a film that can be analyzed and examined no matter how many times one sees it and each viewing will leave you with new questions or something you may not have observed on the previous watch. It's a larger film in the overall history of the medium than just a 'sexist' and 'gross out' film. It's a deep and dark thriller with brilliant performances, excellent writing from Ms. Turner and Ms. Harron, and is to this day still my favorite Christian Bale performance hands down. If you haven't seen 'American Psycho' before, or just haven't seen it in a while pop it in and see what it does for you. Oh, and if you have the chance to read the novel I recommend that too but not without strong warning.
(A+)
(Buy The Novel Here)
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