About the protaganist who may have turned into an antagonist in American Psycho

American Psycho pulled me in from its first frame that I happened to catch. The protagonist in the form of Christian Bale all calm and serene with what looked like two blue cubes over his eyes, standing under a blue hue to a voiceover. The words from the voiceover didnt register quick but the next scene cuts to Patrick Bateman (Bale) with a younger looking colleague in a swanky restaurant. Immediately it sets out they are self involved vain and fickle yuppies.

The dialogue is biting and sharp and compliments Bale's performance who seems to be cutting out the same notch as previous yuppie film sharks such as Michael Douglas (Wall Street) and most of the cast of Boiler Room. Now already we know the title of the film (that the film is based on a novel is altogether something else) gives away some of the surprises that will ensue, namely that the cool calm collected protagonist is given to acts of unhinged violence. All we have to do is to anticipate the execution by something the unsuspecting would be victim would say to offend the titular psycho and in due time he would pay for his/her insolence in a more than ghastly fashion. All very predictable for we already know the film's about a yuppie serial killer so plenty of more from where this comes from. So what makes it different than hordes of a kazillion psycho serial killer flicks. Surely the name of the film could have been of any of the genre films made in the US. Being an adaptation of an acclaimed novel give the film some degree of prestige over other genre films. And then of course you have the cast and crew that promises you something more than another psycho serial killer flick.

Christian Bale's performance is assured, magnetic and deservedly award winning material (that the Academy ignored him really shouldn't surprise anyone). Time and again during the film you can trace the same predatory streak Tom Cruise displayed in Magnolia and the resemblance is spooky at times. And what with the 80s being the new recycled retro in films today and providing a template for the utter absurdity of the Reagan Thatcher years. The film is rich in its intertextual references specially so with its usage of vintage 80s music. Not only are we revisited by 80s defining pop songs but mostly the music is used in a digetic sense and we are given a very involved and articulate critique of the whatever playing song-in-the-scene by the Bateman. Or even when you have the Bateman working out in front of his TV playing the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, off-screen the sound of his huffing and the bestial screams from the TV make for an eerie mood.

Other such yuppie indulgences are given time that only highlights the material plastic existence of the Wall Street people. Consider the Wall Street lot comparing their business cards in painstaking details, the material, texture, color, layout and font. Another time and another place this might as well have been boys comparing their phalluses.

Despite the confidence of the protagonist he's not less than inviting suspicion at the wrong times. The ever dependable Willem Dafoe plays the detective investigating the victim's disappearance and though his friendly demeanour and broad smiling face extends a harmless presence, Bateman doesn’t fail to show the signs of a primary suspect with his hollow cocky body language and obviously fake offers to help the detective and I am not even taking about the obvious holes in his story and alibi. Surprisingly for all his fidgeting and cocky nervousness there isn’t much for which the detective can pin down the rap on him. This gives Patrick to continue with his murder spree. He is given to threesomes and where he is polite, civil and real chivalrous to the prostitutes he might pick up from the streets or summon from some escort service he does turn into something menacing when the control freak in him lashes out and being curt yet polite at the same time is never less then passing on disparaging comments on the female company and succeeds in making them uncomfortable. And then he has his vanity to pamper. For this he prefers to film his performance and if that’s not enough do it in front of a mirror, marvelling at his own body during various positions.

A comparison can be made between Patrick Bateman and Mickey Knox from yet another trendy serial killer film, NBK aka Natural Born Killers. At one point during the last act of the film Mickey ponders that he has evolved from being merely human so is justified in his killings. Bateman is also indignant towards people who don’t share his position or even some of his own colleagues. Yet at two instances in the film he comes short of killing people. Once in a men’s room where he is disgusted to find that the other guy mistook his close proximity in the men’s room to be sexual advance. And at the second instance when he invites his secretary (a rather plump Chloe Sevigny) and again just at the last moment is interrupted by a message on his answering machine. Here he momentarily gets a moment of (pained) clarity. He tells his secretary to go even letting her know he’s afraid he might hurt her.

The film’s denouement follows which has Bateman picking the same prostitute up who’s understandably reluctant this time around and this episode ends with full throttle hi octane bloody and manic scenes with Bateman at his most unhinged running naked with a buzzing chainsaw. Shortly afterwards he must have killed like half a dozen people including blowing up a police car with his revolver. His emotional breakdown is followed by this where reaches out for help to his lawyer on his answering machine and sobbing on the phone to his secretary. It's when we think that Bateman just might reach his logical end that we get another twist. Without revealing it I can only say that signs , subtle signs were littered through out as in as his antics grow more wild and less discrete, people still fail to catch up with him. The film just turns out to be one of the few that linger on quite some time after you have seen it and provides another distinct portrait of a celluloid troubled soul.