American Psycho

Dir: Mary Harron

2000

*****

After making one of the most iconic (and overlooked) films of the 90s (I Shot Andy Warhol), Mary Harron then went onto adapting ‘that book’ that pretty much everyone had read and had been talking about since 1991. I look back at 2000 and think who else could have directed Bret Easton Ellis’s disturbing modern classic and keep coming up with blanks. I loved I Shot Andy Warhol but would still never have thought of Mary Harron directing it after just one film. Apparently David Cronenberg was considered (with Brad Pitt cast in the lead role) but discussions quickly fell through. Harron was brought in as was Christian Bale but both were brushed aside when Oliver Stone was chosen as director with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the part of Patrick Bateman. While I understand why Stone was considered I think it was a close thing, as this would have been terrible following what he did with Natural Born Killers. It was too obvious, when American Psycho was not an obvious horror. I’m not sure who else was approached but the thought of directors like Quentin Tarantino, Tony Scott and indeed Oliver Stone (directors whom I’m sure would be approached all these years later had the film not been made in 2000) making the film their way makes me feel so relieved that Harron got the job. While Leonardo DiCaprio is the same age as Christian Bale, he looked way too young in 2000 and only looked 27 (the age both men were at the time) a good twelve years later. He did well to jump ship and make The Beach instead. Mary Harron and Christian Bale ended up being the perfect team, I’ll be brutally honest and admit that I would pay good money to see Stuart Gordon’s version staring Johnny Depp as was touted as early as 1992 but I think it was best, especially for us Stuart Gordon fans, that it didn’t happen. What did happen was one of the greatest first films of the new millienium. In 1987, wealthy New York investment banker Patrick Bateman's life revolves around dining at trendy restaurants while keeping up appearances for his fiancée Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon) and his circle of wealthy and shallow associates, most of whom he dislikes. Bateman describes the material accoutrements of his lifestyle, including his daily morning exercise, beautification routine, designer wardrobe and expensive furniture. He also discusses his music collection, which includes Huey Lewis and the News, Phil Collins and Whitney Houston (Whitney Houston refused to allow any of her songs to be used in the film due to the bloody violence). Bateman and his associates flaunt their business cards in a display of vanity. Enraged by the superiority of co-worker Paul Allen's card, Bateman murders a homeless man and kills the man's dog. At a Christmas party, Bateman makes plans to have dinner with Paul (Jared Leto), who mistakes Bateman for another coworker, Marcus Halberstram. Bateman gets Paul drunk and lures him back to his apartment. While playing "Hip to Be Square" on the stereo, Bateman delivers a monologue to Paul about the artistic merits of the song and of Huey Lewis and the News, then murders him with an axe. He disposes of Paul's body, and then goes to his apartment to stage the situation so that others believe Paul has run off to London. Bateman is later interviewed about Paul's disappearance in his office by private detective Donald Kimball (Willem Dafoe). During the night, Bateman takes two prostitutes, whom he names Christie and Sabrina, to his apartment and explains to them the improvement he saw in the band Genesis after they moved away from progressive rock toward a more pop rock sound beginning with the album Duke. After they have sex, Bateman tells them to stay, while taking out instruments he uses for torture. In the next scene, they leave his apartment bruised and bloodied. The next day, Bateman's colleague Luis Carruthers reveals his new business card. Bateman tries to kill Luis in the restroom of an expensive restaurant but cannot bring himself to strangle him. Luis mistakes the attempted murder for a sexual advance and declares his love for Bateman, who flees in disgust. After murdering a model, Bateman invites his secretary, Jean (Chloë Sevigny), to dinner, suggesting she meet him at his apartment for drinks before. When Jean arrives, Bateman, unbeknownst to her, holds a nailgun to the back of her head while the two converse. When he receives an answering machine message from his fiancée, Evelyn, he asks Jean to leave. Kimball meets Bateman for lunch and tells him he is not under suspicion. Bateman has a threesome with his friend Elizabeth and Christie at Paul's apartment, and kills Elizabeth during sex. Christie runs, discovering multiple female corpses as she searches for an exit. A naked Bateman chases her while wielding a chainsaw, and drops it on her, killing her. Bateman breaks off his engagement with Evelyn. That night, as he uses an ATM, he finds a stray kitten. The ATM displays the text "feed me a stray cat". As he prepares to shoot the cat, a woman sees and tries to stop him; he shoots her and lets the cat go free. A police chase ensues but Bateman destroys the police cars by shooting their gas tanks. Fleeing to his office, Bateman enters the wrong office building, where he murders a security guard and a janitor. In an office he believes is his, Bateman calls his lawyer Harold and frantically leaves a lengthy confession on Harold's answering machine. The following morning, Bateman visits Paul's apartment, expecting it to be full of decomposing bodies and in the middle of a police investigation, but it's vacant and for sale. The realtor tells him to leave. As Bateman goes to meet with his colleagues and lawyer for lunch, a horrified Jean finds detailed drawings of murder, mutilation and rape in Bateman's office journal. Bateman sees Harold at a restaurant and mentions the phone message he left the other night. Harold mistakes Bateman for another colleague and laughs off the phone message confession as a joke, saying he had dinner with Paul in London days earlier. A confused Bateman returns to his friends. In a final voice-over narration, he realizes he will continue to escape the punishment he deserves, and that there has been no catharsis: "This confession has meant nothing". Bret Easton Ellis’s novel is something else, a brilliantly dry, funny, horrific and frightening look at a world of big business, where the rich get away with brutality every day. It’s clearly about capitalism and Hatton’s clinical direction of it is perfectly suited. Having a killer in a suit and tie is only the start of the horror that lies within. Christian Bale’s performance as Patrick Bateman is now an iconic moment in cinema history. The novel is a hundred times more graphic and disturbing but Hatton/Bale show as much as they can get away with, without distracting from the point of the bigger picture. It remains one of the most greatest horror films of all time in my opinion. While many directors and actors of the day were considered, Hatton and Bale were perfect. Hatton was going strength to strength and Bale was too, although my favorite American Psycho story is that preparation for the role, Bale used Nicolas Cage's performance in Vampire's Kiss as inspiration. I think that’s brilliant. To think Bale was warned by many that it would be career suicide for him to play the lead in a film like this. This only made him more eager to take the part and fortunately for him, the opposite turned out to be true.