AMERICAN PSYCHO

Having failed to get to the end of the Bret Easton Ellis novel I’m very glad that this excellent adaptation got made, despite Ellis thinking his satire was unfilmable.

I'm also glad that Christian Bale eventually was cast in the main role of Patrick Bateman; it's really hard to imagine anyone else playing the part.

Bateman is a classic case of an unreliable narrator.  He's a New York investment banker who seems also to be a serial killer although as the violence escalates and becomes more surreal it's unclear how much on the screen is real or is just in Patrick's head.  The film is open to various interpretations, mine being that the killings start off as being real before Bateman suffers a major meltdown. 

Ultimately maybe it doesn't matter too much.  Whatever the truth Bateman is a severely disturbed individual.  Appropriately for someone for whom appearances are all that matters, there's nothing inside.  When at the end he breaks down and confesses his crimes no on is interested, which serves to emphasise how ephemeral his existence is.

The film does a great job of showing us the emptiness of the culture in which Bateman moves, especially the vacuous and interchangeable bankers who try to outdo each other with the pretentiousness of their business cards.

It also works pretty well as a thriller with several very tense scenes in which various females are in jeopardy.