AMERICAN PSYCHO

"In a film full of memorable lines the one which summed up the world of Brett Easton Ellis' novel and this screen adaptation is spoken by one of Patrick Bateman's co-workers. As the conversation turns inevitably to restaurants and where they should eat to score maximum status points one says "I'm not really hungry but I'd just like to know I've got a reservation". Appearance is everything. This ferociously funny satire based on the most maligned novel of the 90's could be subtitled A Nightmare On Wall St as the blank space known as Patrick Bateman becomes the ultimate metaphor for the grisly hedonism which drove the 1980's and remains active, though less conspicuous, today. If anyone had trouble accepting the metaphors in Brett Easton Ellis' writing, Mary Harron's brilliant film leaves us in no doubt that, in the characters own words, he is "simply not there". Not as flesh and blood but as a potent symbol of moral and spiritual decay in western industrial economies cannibalised by consumerism and the superficial. Director/co-writer Mary Harron gets everything right here. Bateman is an idea borne of disgust and indulgence for its own sake. His victims, importantly, are very real; they are the disenfranchised without eggshell coloured business cards and entree to the nothing masquerading as something that is Bateman's world. The comic book violence becomes uncomfortably real as Bateman's spree intensifies; early laughter at his long-winded analysis of Whitney Houston and Phil Collins songs subsiding as the brutality of a system which creates the notion of a Patrick Bateman is realised. Performances are superb all-round, with Bale mesmerising whether relating the details of his face-pack and stomach-crunch morning ritual or wielding a chainsaw down a corridor. Chloe Sevigny's doe-eyed looks work perfectly as his mousy secretary and Reese Witherspoon a shrill delight as his vacuous girlfriend - the embodiment of a "social x-ray" from Bonfire Of The Vanities. Rounded out with crisp, antiseptic photography and a soundtrack mixing the brilliant and the deliberately banal, this is a powerhouse journey into the dark side."
Richard Kuipers

"Few books have caused more controversy in recent times than Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho (if you buy it in Australia, it will be sealed in plastic) and now the story hits the big screen. Despite what you may have heard, this film is definitely not a slasher or horror movie; although it is horrific in its own way. American Psycho is an examination of evil lurking amongst us; and of our blithe ignorance of it so as not to disturb our otherwise "perfect" lives. It challenges us to consider the very value of human life in a materialistic society. That’s not to say the film isn’t entertaining - it’s engaging, very funny and the plot moves along at a pace. For the squeamish, don’t worry. In the tradition of Hitchcock, virtually all the violence takes place off-screen (which is to say, in your head). As the dapper but disturbed Bateman, Christian Bale turns in one of the best performances of the year so far. He’s clearly studied Peter Lorre’s whistling psychopath in Fritz Lang’s classic M (a thematically similar film). His blend of surface style and dark underbelly is wonderful to watch. Oscar nominee Chloe Sevigny gets limited screen time as his doe-eyed secretary; but is entirely convincing. Reese Witherspoon is achingly "80s" as Evelyn; Samantha Mathis’ Courtney is ennui personified; and Willem Dafoe does his best Columbo as the smarter-than-he-looks detective. American Psycho is an exciting and disturbing film. Whether you ultimately like it or not, you won’t soon forget it. And you’ll never look at a business card the same way again."
David Edwards