Cabba's ReviewsPsycho...American Style
July 13th 2009 12:39
I'd been putting off watching American Psycho for a while just because I thought it was a tragic remake of a Hitchcock classic. Little did I know that the film almost has nothing to do with the classic and instead is a modern work of art meant to trash and badmouth the workings of modern day society. American Psycho is a comment on consumerism, on obsession, on greed and most importantly on the superficiality of human behaviour especially in the upper class. The film reminded me a lot of Fight Club in its first narrative approach and its stance against buying and selling and buying and selling. The humour in the movie is dark. Darker than I believe any film that I have ever seen. It almost borderlines serious but most of the time, you can't help but laugh at the situation, the intensity and the bizarre characterisation of Patrick Bateman. Christian Bale who played the twisted freak aka Patrick Bateman executed it perfectly, really bringing his psychosis with his emotional detachment with an almost sympathy for what the world has shaped this human into.
Overall Plot:
The film is a first person recount of a man named Patrick Bateman. He is an extremely wealthy business vice president of a huge Wall St. company that his father owns. He lives his life with succinct routine and order. His only concerns are greed and success. He feels nothing towards his friends and coworkers and spends his nights murdering the 'scums' of the earth such as prostitutes and the homeless. A contest of business cards drives Patrick to murder one of his wealthy associated from his firm, which leads to a murder investigation. This escalates as Patrick becomes increasingly nervous and uncertain of his fate and eventually goes on a killing rampage. What follows is an explanation I don't even understand after multiple viewings. It is open to interpretation but I'd like to think this film is just a basic metaphor for all the bad things society has churned up.
What I found most effective was that it never at any time allow sympathy to flow from the audience for the protagonist. Patrick Bateman is presented as an evil character but not a foul, unrelatable one. The audience is clearly not sympathising with his situation, but instead is looking into a perfect specimen. All humans aspire to become this perfect specimen. To live in an apartment overlooking the Manhattan skyline, a respectable job, a permanent ticket into high society, dinner reservations at the most exclusive restaurants in NYC and of course, kick-ass business cards. Now, I mention business cards not because I am weird, but because there was a prominent scene in the film which really touched on the subject. This scene was the highlight for me in the film. It was so ridiculous to see 4 business men play the ‘my horse is bigger than your horse’ game when comparing their ‘newly furnished’ business cards. There was so much dark humour in this scene, I thought it was going to implode…in a good way. The scene begins with Patrick Bateman who shows off his new business card. It’s slightly cream, its text is black and embedded nicely and a strong font has been chosen. Next, his friend carelessly shows off his new baby, this time just off white with a similar font chosen for the text. Two other men show off theirs, while Patrick Bateman sits in his chair getting envious. His jealously climaxes as his most hated coworker’s business card is added to the pile and is obviously the nicest of all of them.
The motivation for Patrick’s mindless killings seem to be derived from nothingness. However, I believe that his anger comes from the frustration he has over his lifestyle, over his fiancé, over his friends and most of all, over the ethics of what’s important and what’s not in the world. With that in mind, even the ‘good’ things in life such as eradicating poverty, finding a cure for cancer, nature, love and compassion are lost in Patrick’s eyes because they too are a superficial creation of society to create a justice that could counterstrike a world of chaos. So in a sense, nothing is good and nothing is bad. Everything is just frustrating and hence, Patrick’s killing sprees. His only passion seems to be music, often playing Phil Collins and Whitney Houston in the background before and during a murder.
Patrick Bateman is an empty shell. He is a man who embodies the philosophical saying ‘there is no meaning in life’. I give this film 4 STARS OUT OF 5 for its wit and its strong messages even if they’re slightly disturbing.
Peace out.
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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