A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.
WHAT I LIKED: Many have said it's about male territorialism and vanity, but when you consider that all genders are ultimately broadcast in the same light here, 'American Psycho,' is really a film about people desperately searching for some sort of fulfillment in their shallow, empty, selfish lives. Everyone on screen attempt to uncover such a thing in material possessions, trivial sexual relationships, status amongst colleagues, and dinner reservations, all whilst the central character Patrick Bateman also happens to do so by listening to pop and going around killing people.
There's both a horrific and a comic absurdity to that central concept in Bret Easton Ellis' story, and that's certainly something that writer/director Mary Harron plays-up in the film with plenty of highly off-kilter moments aided by extremely out-of-place music choices. There's also of course the overtly theatrical performance from Christian Bale, and all in all that amounts to something for which there's one very obvious descriptive term - Kubrick-esque. Yes, a film examining humanity in some way all whilst displaying a cynical, satirical view of society in a theatrical manor - and ending somewhat ambiguously - is exactly what Stanley Kubrick was all about, and in a way it's testament to everyone involved here that such a comparison can be drawn.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: Just like a Kubrick film however, American Psycho equally never gets under the skin of its central character, and instead broadcasts the whole thing on a largely thematic level. We never truly understand Bateman or anyone who surrounds him, and they instead simply live in an abstract, metaphorical world devoid of any anchoring in real humanity. Also, rather *unlike* a Kubrick film, this isn't so much about uncovering some meaning throughout the narrative, it's just about a bunch of shallow characters aimlessly looking for such a thing in their own lives to no successful end.
VERDICT: The most Stanley Kubrick film that Stanley Kubrick never made, Mary Harron's 'American Psycho,' is a theatrically-executed unsuccessful search for fulfillment in a shallow, abstract world, and that's both a fascinating and an unengaging thing to watch.
