American Psycho Movie Review 423

American Psycho is a 2000 horror movie directed by Mary Harron and starring Christian Bale, Reese Witherspoon, Justin Theroux, Jared Leto and Willem Dafoe.

This movie is based on the novel written by Bret Easton Ellis which has been reviewed here. The story begins with a guy called Patrick Bateman(Bale). He is a very handsome, vain and ambitious person. He is an investment banker and he has a fiancee called Evelyn(Witherspoon). He lives in a world of fancy restaurants, trendy bars and fast cars. Bateman narrates the movie telling us all about his routines which include his exercise regimen and his skincare habits. He is a perfectionist. He has everything that a person could want-  money, a nice place to live and a great job. But, he is not happy with this. He gets annoyed at a co worker, Paul Allen(Leto) and he murders an innocent man because of this. He eventually gets Paul back to his apartment and kills him with an axe while listening to Huey Lewis and the News!!! He makes it look as if Paul has decided to leave town so nobody will miss him.

Patrick is interviewed about Paul by a private eye, Kimball(Dafoe). He is not under suspicion. He plays around with two hookers and mistreats them for his pleasure. Things go from bad to worse for Bateman when he gets pissed at another co worker. He is going to kill him, but can't follow through. His co worker thinks that he was coming on to him and he is happy about it. Patrick is disgusted and leaves. He talks to Kimball again but nothing is really resolved. He murders two women after having a threesome with them. He dumps his fiancee. Patrick becomes more unhinged and he attacks a woman on the street and then is chased by the cops. He shoots their cars and he escapes. He leaves a confession on his lawyer's answering machine as he thinks that he has been discovered.

The movie comes to an end with Patrick meeting his lawyer who thought that he was someone else and who said that he had dinner with Paul Allen so he couldn't be dead. Patrick realises that his confession was useless and that he has literally gotten away with murder. So, nothing has really been resolved. The book has a similar ending so I suppose you draw your own conclusion. I liked this movie a lot. He has the right amount of comedy and violence here.One one side, he is a normal person but behind the mask lurks a complete psychopath. I like Christian Bale. He is a very handsome man and I enjoy his movies. He is also a great actor, so this movie benefits from having him in the lead role. The book is a lot more violent and graphic. I did find the novel very good, but a little violent in parts. I love that the film is set in the 80's and the cast was great here. I don't know what message this tale sends out. I guess that it is about greed and excess and violence but I would recommend it as a great movie with a fine performance from Bale. I will give it an 8/10.