American Psycho. [9/10]USA.
Directed by Mary Harron.
Written by Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner.
Starring Christian Bale, Cara Seymour, Chloë Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, Jared Leto, Justin Theroux and Willem Dafoe.
American Psycho was controversial on release (though not near as controversial as the iconic Bret Easton Ellis novel it was based upon), however the direction Harron took the film in was very contradictory to those who protested its' release. Harron must have known that the graphic, angry nature of the novel is what made it 'unfilmable', and traded in detailed gore and the isolated ramblings of a sociopath for dark humour and witty social commentary. This was a huge risk for Harron to take; the film already had an audience, and she was at great risk of isolating her film from that audience by toning the film down the way she did, but in the end her decisions pay off and she delivered one of the smartest, funniest and most haunting horror films to surface in this decade.
The performances in the film were magnificent. Bale fits the lead role of serial killer/Wall Street tycoon Patrick Bateman like a glove, his intimidating presence both bone chilling and charismatic. Bale understood the complete shallowness of Bateman, and delivered his lines with vacant desperation that raises the bar for serial killer performances, and would arguably be the best since Michael Rooker's portrayal of Henry Lee Lucas in 1986's 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'. The secondary cast members are perfectly cast, from Cara Seymour's heartfelt and angsty portrayal of a greedy, irresponsible street walker, to Reese Witherspoon's effortless transformation into an airhead socialite who is oblivious to Bateman's sinister side, as well as Justin Theroux as Bateman's cokehead workmate, Willem Dafoe as the suspicious detective, Jared Leto as the cocky colleague, and a plethora of other talented actors (most notably, after Bale, is Chloë Sevigny's wounded portrayal of Bateman's dowdy secretary Jan, the only character in the film with any redeemable qualities, and Sevigny is as magnificent as ever).
The film is not without flaws, while as good as it could have been it still doesn't pack the visceral punch the book does, and the ending is too ambiguous; it leaves the viewer with too many questions when the aim of the story is to leave them with none, but the book's a bitter (but important) pill to swallow, and the movie takes the books message and makes it more accessible to the mainstream, and proves that it's not always a bad thing.
9/10.
The performances in the film were magnificent. Bale fits the lead role of serial killer/Wall Street tycoon Patrick Bateman like a glove, his intimidating presence both bone chilling and charismatic. Bale understood the complete shallowness of Bateman, and delivered his lines with vacant desperation that raises the bar for serial killer performances, and would arguably be the best since Michael Rooker's portrayal of Henry Lee Lucas in 1986's 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'. The secondary cast members are perfectly cast, from Cara Seymour's heartfelt and angsty portrayal of a greedy, irresponsible street walker, to Reese Witherspoon's effortless transformation into an airhead socialite who is oblivious to Bateman's sinister side, as well as Justin Theroux as Bateman's cokehead workmate, Willem Dafoe as the suspicious detective, Jared Leto as the cocky colleague, and a plethora of other talented actors (most notably, after Bale, is Chloë Sevigny's wounded portrayal of Bateman's dowdy secretary Jan, the only character in the film with any redeemable qualities, and Sevigny is as magnificent as ever).
The film is not without flaws, while as good as it could have been it still doesn't pack the visceral punch the book does, and the ending is too ambiguous; it leaves the viewer with too many questions when the aim of the story is to leave them with none, but the book's a bitter (but important) pill to swallow, and the movie takes the books message and makes it more accessible to the mainstream, and proves that it's not always a bad thing.
9/10.
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