Did you know I'm utterly insane? (American Psycho (DVD))

Member Name: mmintfresh

Product:	American Psycho (DVD)
Date:	24/08/02 (108 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Patrick Bateman, Acting, Film

Disadvantages: Transfer from book to film

Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) seems like your typical yuppie. He works on Wall Street, has an upscale apartment and is obsessed with his appearance. His work colleagues are exactly the same and spend most of their time discussing where to get reservations at or just slagging off one of their fellow employees. Although they are all very amoral and will do anything to get ahead in the business world, Bateman goes that little bit further. He is a ruthless killer. On the outside he presents himself as normal, composed and also somewhat caring about less fortunate people and ethnic groups. On the inside he is an uncontrollable psychopath. He has only two emotions, greed and disgust. Patrick normal will basically kill anyone, but mainly preys on prostitutes, or girls he picks up and homeless people.

Patrick is one of the vice presidents at Pierce and Pierce, practically all his friends are too. They are all competing to get the illusive Fisher account. However one of his rivals Paul Allen (Jared Leto) gets it. This annoys Patrick and he grows more and more jealous of him. One day he decides to get his revenge. Pretending to be someone else (at work most people dress the same and have the same haircut so people often mistake someone for someone else) he takes Paul out to dinner. Gets him drunk and takes him home. He then kills him by attacking him with an axe. A private detective, Donald Kimble (Willem Dafoe) is sent to investigate Paul's disappearance. Meanwhile Patrick's impulse to kill his growing stronger and he is worrying that his mask of sanity is going to slip.

I was a big fan of the Bret Easton Ellis novel, American Psycho on which the film is based on so when I heard that the film was being made I really wanted to see it. I have to say that although the film was excellent that the old cliché, the book was better than the film has to be applied here.

The film itself is a great watch. It is darkly humorous, thrilling and an e
ngrossing watch. It captures the atmosphere created in the book. The Wall Street created in the film is very similar to the book. This part of the film is definitely a satire on the Wall Street in the 1980's. It embodies the ruthless competitiveness, most prominently shown in the business card scene when everyone tries to out do the other by showing their card (although essentially they are all white with black type). However the character of Patrick Bateman is no way as good as in the book.

I liked the casting of Christian Bale in this film he was perfect for the role. I'm happy that Oliver Stone, who was originally set to direct didn't because otherwise we'd have to spend the 2 hours in the company of a crazed Leonardo Di Caprio. Bale not only looks the part he is the part. He makes Patrick look like a normal guy by day and a psycho at night, making it seem like he is playing two parts. However it is when these two personalities start to blend into each other is when Bale does the best work. He is totally believable as a man on the edge and even promotes a little sympathy because he makes it seem as if he is a slave to his bloodlust. He was a joy to watch. However the character of Patrick wasn't written as well as it was in the book. Firstly although the film shows his day time character perfectly I feel they fail when making him crazy. Don't get me wrong he is a very disturbing character and comes across as having totally lost the plot but the potential of his madness is not shown.

The reason for this is that the director, Mary Harron and the writers of the screenplay, Harron again, with Guinevere Turner. The have chosen to focus a lot of the Wall Street satire on the film and because of this the film has only a small fraction of the films violence. Although I am a total gore hound and would have love to have seen more blood and guts that is not the reason why I think the film should have been more violent. In the book Pa
trick is totally sadistic and evil and part of the way this is shown is through the way that he kills people. Some of the violence in the book is absolutely shocking and I appreciate that not all of it could have been shown on film but without it I think Patrick doesn't seem so crazy. I feel that the film would have been all the more powerful if Patrick was as crazy as he was in the book. But if this was a stand alone film it would have worked well, the fact that I read the book kind of ruined the film for me.

As well as the blinding performance by Christian Bale there is some excellent support. The likes of Jared Leto, Willem Dafoe, Reese Witherspoon and Chloë Sevigny are brilliant, especially Sevigny. She plays Patrick's put upon assistant Jean. Sevigny shows Jean as being very vulnerable and as the audience we fell very sorry for her. The fact that Patrick constantly tells her to wear a different outfit makes us feel for her.

The direction in the film is great. Harron keeps the pace up and creates some wonderful environments for Bateman. The restaurants, the apartments and the office all create the perfect environment for the 80's satire and Bateman. The cold clinical camera and settings also helps mirror Patrick's lack of emotion perfectly. I would recommend American Psycho because it is a great film because of the character of Patrick Bateman. However some people have found the film shocking because of the violence. I would also say that people looking for a blood drenched horror film will also be disappointed.

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