Plot
Based on the conroversial novel about 1980s excess, greed and murder. That's right, murder. The film centers on Patrick Bateman, an ad executive living the high life in 1987. He has a nice apartment, an attractive fiance, an attractive mistress, and a high-paying job. But, he's not really there. He relates to us in the beginning how he takes care of his body a tries to look good. How his imagis everything, and the outside appearence must be perfect. But on the inside, he is an empty shell, with no real feelngs. Everything he does isn't real, and he's jus going through the motions.
One run-in in particular shows how out of whack Patrick is. The first time we see him kill someone, its a rival, Paul Allen. Paul mistakes Patrick for another colleague, and seems to upstage Patrick at every turn. This sends Patrick into a rage, and after going to dinner, he takes Paul home and kills him with an axe. This sends the police onto Patick's tail, but he manages to talk his way out of the prime suspect spot. However, his blood lust escalates as he kills a few hookers, and his sanity keeps slipping. He even tries to confess to his lawyer, but even he confuses him with someone else. In the end, its a little ambiguous as to whether or not he actually killed all those people. But the ride is a pretty twisted, entertaining ride.
My Thoughts
This was a pretty big thing when it was being pushed into release. Due to the nature of the story, Mary Harron couldn't get a distributor, until Lion's Gate Films stepped up to the plate. The Canadian based company looked past the censors objections and distributed the film worldwide. The final cut of the film also had to be changed. One scene, in which Bateman is having sex with two hookers, but the whole time, he's watching himself in the mirror, caused the MPAA to give the movie an NC-17 rating. In the US, the scene was cut to give it an R, but in the theatrical version I saw, here in Canada, the scene was intact, and the film had an 18A rating.
Any way, the film was a trip, from start to finish, and it really messed with your head. Did he kill all these people? Or was it all in his head? And the way he was absolutely unattatched emotionally was damn creepy. This film also introduced me to Christian Bale, a chameleon of an actor, who embodied what is was to be Patrick Bateman. For the most part, this movie was a trip, and Bale's performance was spectacular. Well worth the ride.
