American Psycho

Review

American Psycho is my favorite book ever and I had really high hopes for this film. It doesn’t help that lots of people love this movie, for the right reasons?? probably not but on some level it has to be good to inspire that type of love. All this to say that this movie is good but overall disappointing when you compare it to the absolute greatness that this the book.

For the uninitiated, American Psycho is the story of a business man we follow as he begins losing his mind and killing as many people as possible, both strangers and those he knows.

This movie is actually pretty good. The casting was spared absolutely no expense, I mean Christian Bale, Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon and so many other famous actors. The acting is top notch and Christian Bale’s performance has got to be one for the books because he does such a fabulous job.

This movie is a very toned down version of the story, more palatable for a wider audience if that’s even possible for this story. The gore is less intense, there’s less hate speech, and Bateman is more enjoyable character. I think that there is some value to this as more people are exposed to the story and message as a whole but I honestly prefer the more intense, horrific, disgusting nature of the book as a whole.

However I do think this movie is more clearly a satire than the book is, which felt too real at times. So this definitely has value in that regard.

I guess all I’m trying to say is that the written details of the book which can’t be communicated in a visual medium really make the book spectacular and being aware of their lack of presence makes the experience entirely disappointing. I’d probably recommended this film to someone who hasn’t read the book but to someone who has I would probably tell them to pass.