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"'Psycho'
Babble"
by Scott Mantz
"American Psycho"
Christian Bale, Reese Witherspoon
Directed by Mary Harron
There's nothing
like a little controversy to keep a film from getting off the ground.
As if making a movie wasn't hard enough, imagine what it's like
when the mere mention of its subject matter is enough to spark a
heated debate. On top of that, throw in a little battle over the
casting of the lead character, and what you have is one blessed
miracle that the film ever got made. These are just some of the
obstacles that Lions Gate Films had to overcome in adapting Bret
Easton Ellis' controversial novel "American Psycho" for the big
screen. Now that it's finally finished, was it worth all the aggravation?
Well, that depends on your taste and sense of humor. While "Psycho"
should certainly be seen as a dark (very dark!) satire about America's
obsession with greed, status, and materialism during the 80's, the
fact is, you'll either love it or hate it. However, it's so unique
in its style, delivery, and execution that it's undoubtedly the
most fascinating film to come along so far this year.
Patrick Bateman
(Christian Bale) has it all--the perfect body, the perfect job,
the perfect girlfriend, the perfect wardrobe, and the perfect apartment.
It's just too bad that none of things really matter to him. What
really gets his rocks off is taking people back to his apartment,
killing them, hacking them to bits, and storing their body parts
in his freezer. He's able to keep his fetish a secret for a little
while, but when he kills one of his business colleagues (Jared Leto)
in a fit of rage, a nosy police detective (Willem Dafoe) starts
asking questions. Between his growing paranoia and his descent deeper
into madness (if that's possible), there's no way that he can possibly
keep this little charade up forever.
It's hard to
imagine that Leonardo DiCaprio was once attached to play Patrick
Bateman. After becoming the king of the world in 1997 with "Titanic",
he was eager for just the right role to get rid of his reluctant
teeny-bopper image. After flirting around with "Psycho", with none
other than Oliver Stone briefly attached to direct, he bailed and
chose "The Beach" instead (which, ironically, did a great job in
squashing his image, even though that was hardly the intention!).
After Mary Harron, who directed the indie favorite "I Shot Andy
Warhol", almost lost out to Stone, she came back, and the lead went
to the original choice, Christian Bale.
It makes perfect
sense that "American Psycho" takes place during the 1980's. Bret
Ellis, who also penned "Less Than Zero", another novel about the
dark side of 80's materialism, meant for "American Psycho" to be
a satire about how people's obsession with consumerism and flashy
style only served to numb their feelings. It became all about who
had the better suit, who had the better car, and even who had better
reservations. That mindset showed up in the music of the time, with
Phil Collins and Huey Lewis and the News spurring out corporate
sounding music that was far too processed to leave any long-lasting
impression.
By trying to
live up to the "greed is good" mentality that defined the times,
it's clear that Patrick Bateman can't handle the pressure. He may
resemble the perfect human being on the outside, but the one screw
that holds it all together on the inside is about to come loose.
When he finally reaches his breaking point and cries out for help,
either nobody is listening or nobody cares to listen. He wants so
badly to feel something--anything--that killing people is all he
can do to make a connection. His constant battle to stay in control
becomes so vicious that something as trivial as a better business
card is enough to send him over the edge.
Christian Bale
makes a killing (no pun intended) with his performance as Patrick
Bateman, and you feel his descent deeper into madness with each
passing scene. He has the daunting task of making the audience sympathize
with a cold blooded killer, but his cocky, arrogant charm keeps
you from taking him too seriously. He is more amusing than he is
scary, and when the film finally reveals itself for what it truly
is, you actually wind up feeling sorry for him.
It's obviously
Bale's movie, but the supporting performances also stand out in
their own right. Reese Witherspoon plays Bateman's fiancee with
cold-hearted materialism, thinking there is nothing wrong with their
dysfunctional relationship as long as they can still get reservations
at the hot spot of the moment. Jared Leto is one of Bale's egotistical
competitors who's biggest mistake was having a better business card
than him. The only character with any redeeming qualities whatsoever
is Chloe Sevigny, who plays the lovelorn secretary with a sweet
and innocent crush on her seemingly perfect boss.
In a lot of
ways, " American Psycho" bears a striking resemblance to "Fight
Club". Christian Bale and Edward Norton are both defined by their
material possessions, but they each turn to violence as a way of
connecting to their feelings. Just when you think each movie is
going along in a certain direction, it completely changes it's course
and becomes a different movie altogether. It picks you up by the
neck, holds you over a cliff, lets you go, and leaves you breathless.
Suddenly, you're mesmerized with disbelief, left alone to re-evaluate
everything that you've just seen.
As much as you
might think that Patrick Bateman is a loose cannon, think again.
His dialogue is not all that different from the types of things
that we all say to ourselves from time to time, even though we don't
act on it. If you don't believe me, listen to yourself the next
time someone cuts you off on the freeway. Listen to yourself the
next time someone else's cel-phone goes off in a movie theater.
Listen to yourself the next time someone's car alarm goes off at
3:00 in the morning. These are the types of feelings that Patrick
is able to connect to, but unfortunately, they're the only feelings
that he can connect to. It's too bad nobody was there to see the
writing on the wall before he went psycho.
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