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| The interest-building poster for Mary Harron's American Psycho with its memorable tag-line: 'Killer looks.' |
Patrick Bateman is a successful New York yuppie in the 1980s, who works out, grooms himself, pays the necessary attention to his fiancée, makes lots of money ... and kills people.
For those who have read Bret Easton Ellis' (Less Than Zero (1985)) weighty and incredible, same-titled 1991 novel, - one of the most talked about books of the 1990s, - the inevitable adaptation here regrettably pales to near-nothing in comparison.
The good things about American Psycho the film, - about Wall Street narcissist yuppie/serial killer Patrick Bateman, - is its casting for one thing: Christian Bale (I'm Not There. (2007)), who fought hard and worked hard for the part, inhabits Bateman's persona quite impressively, and he is joined by an awesome supporting cast that includes, among others, Jared Leto (Requiem for A Dream (2000)), Justin Theroux (Parks and Recreation (2010), TV-series), Chloë Sevigny (The Killing Room (2009)), Willem Dafoe (Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)), and Reese Witherspoon (The Trumpet of the Swan (2001)). Put together on a fairly low budget and piled with great 80's pop tunes as well, the pedigree is not bad at all.
But pivotally, American Psycho neglects to stage the piercing societal critique and controversial, ultra-violent, and very ugly scenes of murder and mayhem from Ellis' book to the degree they deserved. This makes it something of a disappointment: Where the novel is extremely bold and transgressive, the movie seems extremely well-behaved. The producers desperately wanted an R rating for the film, and agreed to cut 18 seconds of a sex scene to achieve this; which is absurd in a film with gruesome killings, - but that's the way of the American censorship system. However, a loyal adaptation of this particular novel would have had to be released either with an X or unrated.
American Psycho is written by co-writer/director Mary Harron (The Moth Diaries (2011)) and Guinevere Turner (Breaking the Girls (2012)). While it is certainly a respectable production with a highly committed lead actor, it also plays like a safe, somewhat steely summary of a great novel.
Watch a clip from the film here; in it we witness Bateman's elaborate morning routine
Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 34.2 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.88 times its cost)
[American Psycho premiered 21 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 101 minutes. The adaptation had been in development for years: Oliver Stone, David Cronenberg, Leonardo DiCaprio, Stuart Gordon, Johnny Depp and Ewan McGregor are some of the directors and stars that were attached or courted at different stages. Bale actively campaigned for the part, and Harron was adamant that he played Bateman. Besides training vigorously physically, he has described that he molded his performance on, among other inspirations, Tom Cruise. Shooting took place in Toronto, Canada and in New York from February - April 1999. The film opened #7 to a 4.9 mil. $ first weekend in 1,236 theaters in North America, its peak, where it grossed 15 mil. $ (43.9 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave it 3/4 stars, equal to a notch better than this review. It won a 'special recognition' award from the National Board of Review. Ellis himself has described the film as "okay" and elaborated that he did not think it needed to be made. An unrelated direct-to-video sequel, American Psycho 2 starring Mila Kunis and William Shatner, was released in 2002. American Psycho is fresh at 67 % with a 6.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of American Psycho?
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