Review of American Psycho (2000) by Mimi S — 24 May 2014

***MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS***.

American Psycho is a bit flat and hollow, but at the same time I guess that's the point of the film. It's an interesting film which certainly gives you a lot to think about. I've decided to start watching some of the really popular well known films in cinema as I haven't seen a lot of the really major films. I saw American Psycho in HMV and I thought I'd give it a go and I've always seen it mentioned as a really iconic film. American Psycho is about a wealthy twenty seven year old man, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) who is living the high life. He works at Wall Street, he's good-looking and successful. However Patrick also leads a dark double life as a serial killer. To his friends he just appears as regular as they are, but they know nothing of his dark obsessions.

American Psycho is an interesting film because it goes to show that psychos can be seemingly ordinary people. This film makes me think that anybody can be a psycho and unfortunately there are a lot of psychos out there who have a fetish for killing. American Psycho is also a dark comedy and I did find it mildly amusing at times for example Patrick's detailed music reviews before carrying out his killings. The themes in the film can be a bit tricky to interpret especially in how they relate to Patrick's killings, such as the American Dream. I felt that the film doesn't really dip that deep into Patrick's character apart from his obsession with porn and his shallow existence. American Psycho is one of those films which is hard to write a review on because it's such a strange film to decipher. I just found it a bit emotionless and bland, but I guess that the "American Dream" can lead to these feelings of emptiness and boredom.

I think that the film definitely has elements of dark humour which I enjoyed; I have to say that Patrick Bateman was funny in a snide and sarcastic way. I do think there were some good performances in the film such as from Chloe Sevigny who plays Jean, Patrick's smitten and naive secretary. Patrick Bateman can certainly be described as a mysognist as he treats his fiancee Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon) badly and he kills prostitutes. However he decides to spare Jean's life which you find yourself questioning why he does that. Christian Bale really immerses himself in his role as Patrick Bateman and you can see why he's such an iconic character. However the rest of the big cast of big names such as Jared Leto, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Samantha Mathis, Willem Dafoe, Reese Witherspoon are all decent. The twist in the end of the film is quite clever as you're left wondering if this has all been in Patrick's head all along or did he really murder all of those these people and why does nobody take him seriously when he confesses? American Psycho is pretty decent horror with good dark humour and it gives you a lot to think about but at the same time I found it a bit overrated and hollow. Definitely worth a watch though through perhaps those who aren't really fans of horror should give this a miss!

Grade: C+.