American Psycho
Directed by: Mary Harron
Written by: Bret Easton Ellis (novel), Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner (screenplay)
Starring: Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon

I’ll start by saying that I haven’t read the book, and I had no prior expectations upon sitting down to watch this film. I had heard a lot of mixed reviews, so I wasn’t really too sure what I was going to see. From the TV commercials I had seen it seemed to have a quirky sense of humour to it, but I also knew it was a movie about a serial killer, and the two didn’t seem to coincide. I didn’t know if I was going to see a horror movie, a comedy, a thriller.. or maybe a docu-drama or better yet a “romantic comedy”! God I love those.

As it turns out, the movie is a lot of things. It really isn’t important what category it fits into. I liked this movie. A lot. I liked it so much that the night after I saw it, I went and saw it again. And neither night was cheapie night! No kidding.

American Psycho deals with the double life of Patrick Bateman, who works as a Wall Street big shot, and also a serial killer in his spare time. We follow his decent into insanity, and see his failed attempts to confess his crimes to the people around him.

Surprisingly, American Psycho was really my kind of movie. Let me tell you why. First of all it had a lot of sex and violence in it. ‘Nuff said there.But besides the obvious reasons, this movie had just about everything in it.For starters, the humour in this movie was great. It was very sarcastic, very dark, and very amusing. In a lot of ways, in reminded me of Army of Darkness or something along those lines.The actors went totally over the top bringing out the exaggerated characters of the corporate world, who obsess over the most trivial things (such as business cards and dinner reservations). It was amusing not only because of how ridiculous it was, but also because I’m sure there is a lot of truth to it. It had many memorable scenes and an endless amount of great one-liners, which, to me, makes it the kind of movie you want to watch over and over again.

Secondly, this movie had style. It was slightly reminiscent of Fight Club, but I can’t quite put my finger on why that is. The camera work was amazing, with lots of great lighting and framing that helped bring us into the mind of the american psycho, by expounding upon the main character’s schizophrenia. Many of the scenes had a dreamy feel to them, which blurred the boundaries between illusion and reality.

The movie also uses music to great effect by juxtaposing hilarious music with the brutal murder scenes. This perhaps brings to mind such movies as Reservoir Dogs or A Clockwork Orange.However, the way in which they treated the murder scenes in this movie was perfect. They maintained the horrific and terrifying aspects of Bateman’s “alter ego”. They did not glorify it or make light of it, they only emphasized his bizarre and volatile nature.

Thirdly (and this is important to me), American Psycho never does what you expect it to. From the artsy opening credit sequence through to the vague ending, the movie refuses to deal out any cliches. I hate it when a movie is too predictable, I like to be caught off guard with twists and surprises. I’m pretty sure that the ending felt awkward to a lot of people because of the simple fact that nothing is resolved. I too felt a little bit short changed at the ending, but after putting it in perspective, I believe that the ending was effective and necessary, and actually gave the movie more resonance. If that makes any sense.

This brings me to the fourth reason why this movie kicked so much ass. It makes you think. It makes you think about the shallowness of society, about how things are not always what they seem, and about the schizophrenic tendencies of every day people.The open ended conclusion leaves you pondering the significance of all that you have seen, and makes you want to go back and watch it all over again.

The great thing about American Psycho is that I think everyone will get something different out of this movie. You need to have an open mind though. That goes especially for the people who have read the book first. It doesn’t even sound like the movie covers the same story as the book. Don’t go to this movie expecting an on-screen version of the book, because you won’t get it. Just go with an open mind and let this movie do its own thing. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. — Sean