American Psycho is a 2000 film by Mary Harron, a film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's controversial novel of the same name. The movie stars Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, with Jared Leto, Josh Lucas, Justin Theroux, Bill Sage, Chloë Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, Willem Dafoe, and Samantha Mathis. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival on April 14, 2000.

Mary Harron, who had previously directed I Shot Andy Warhol (based on the story of Valerie Solanas), directed the film and co-wrote its screenplay with Guinevere Turner. This screenplay was selected over three others, including one by Ellis himself. Turner claims Ellis' only complaint with the movie was Bateman's moonwalk before killing Paul Allen. In the novel, Patrick Bateman's favorite bands are Genesis, Huey Lewis and the News and Whitney Houston. Three distinct, and entire chapters, are devoted to each. Virtually every line in the film, including voice-overs, are taken verbatim from Ellis' novel. One of the few discrepancies is that several names from the book were changed for the film; for instance Paul Owen became Paul Allen and Tim Price became Tim Bryce. In an interview, Mary Harron claimed to be distressed upon discovering that Paul Allen was a high-powered figure in business and technology and that she meant nothing by the use of his name.[1]

American Psycho, as other works by Ellis, has connecting characters from his other books which subsequently do not appear at all in the film version. With the exception of the character of Vanden, whom Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon) introduces as her cousin at Espace, is also from Rules of Attraction. Patrick Bateman's brother Sean from Rules of Attraction is in the chapter entitled Birthday/Brother, but is mentioned nowhere in the film; However, Patrick is mentioned by Sean in both the book and the film version of Rules of Attraction.

Many people in the film industry have said that the novel was "un-filmable" because of its graphic violence and sexual content. During the early stage of pre-production, many actors, directors and crew members were considered to take on the movie adaptation. Harron and Bale were originally set to make the movie, but Leonardo DiCaprio expressed interest in playing the lead. Production company Lions Gate Entertainment issued a press release that DiCaprio would star, after which Harron walked off the project, and Oliver Stone subsequently expressed interest in directing the film. When both DiCaprio and Stone dropped the project, Harron and Bale returned to the movie.

Christian Bale spent several months working out by himself, and then three hours a day with a trainer during pre-production, in order to achieve the proper physique for the narcissistic Bateman.

For the edited DVD version and R-rated cinematic version of the film in the USA, the producers excised approximately 18 seconds of footage from a scene featuring Bateman having a threesome with two prostitutes. Some dialogue was also edited: Bateman orders a prostitute, Christy, to bend over so that another, Sabrina, can "see your asshole", which was edited to "see your ass". The unedited version also shows Bateman receiving oral sex from Christy. Some events that Bateman mentions in the phone message to his lawyer are events that transpired in the book, but not in the film.

Cast and crew considerations

• Johnny Depp was informally attached to the project, first with Stuart Gordon in talks and then with David Cronenberg attached.
• Brad Pitt was once attached to star, with David Cronenberg directing and Ellis himself writing the script.
• Edward Norton was offered the part of Bateman but turned it down.
• Leonardo DiCaprio as Patrick Bateman, James Woods as Donald Kimball and Cameron Diaz as Evelyn Williams with Oliver Stone set to direct from a script written by Matthew Markwalder. DiCaprio was going to be paid $20 million for the film, and, as recounted in the DVD extras, Mary Harron resigned in protest as she had already offered the role to Christian Bale. When Gloria Steinem lobbied DiCaprio not to make the movie, on the grounds that his fan base consisted mostly of young teenage girls following his Titanic success, he dropped the role, and Harron and Bale returned (Steinem's participation is somewhat interesting, considering she would soon become Christian Bale's stepmother).
• Guinevere Turner, who wrote the screenplay for the film, has a cameo as one of the girls Patrick has in Paul's apartment. There is an inside joke, when he asks if she wants to get it on with the other girl, and she says "I'm not a lesbian! Why would you think that?" Patrick replies "well, for one thing, you DID go to Sarah Lawrence"--the joke being that Turner is a lesbian, and she actually went to Sarah Lawrence.

Reaction

American Psycho debuted at the Sundance Film Festival where it polarized audiences and critics with some showering praise, others scorn.[2] Upon its theatrical release, however, the film received positive reviews in crucial publications, including the New York Times which called it a "mean and lean horror comedy classic".[3] Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and praised Christian Bale's performance as being "heroic in the way he allows the character to leap joyfully into despicability; there is no instinct for self-preservation here, and that is one mark of a good actor".[4] In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan wrote, "The difficult truth is that the more viewers can model themselves after protagonist Bateman, the more they can distance themselves from the human reality of the slick violence that fills the screen and take it all as some kind of a cool joke, the more they are likely to enjoy this stillborn, pointless piece of work".[5] Newsweek magazine's David Ansen wrote, "But after an hour of dissecting the '80s culture of materialism, narcissism and greed, the movie begins to repeat itself. It becomes more grisly and surreal, but not more interesting".[6] In his review for the Village Voice, J. Hoberman wrote, "If anything, Bale is too knowing. He eagerly works within the constraints of the quotation marks Harron puts around his performance".[7]

Rolling Stone magazine's Peter Travers wrote, "whenever Harron digs beneath the glitzy surface in search of feelings that haven't been desensitized, the horrific and hilarious American Psycho can still strike a raw nerve".[8] In his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris wrote, "The best scenes in the film involve the kind of status-seeking jokes that would make a very funny short subject. But over a feature-length film, there is only so much hollowness this viewer can endure before starting to yawn and look at his watch. Curiously, the material has even lost its power to shock and outrage".[9] Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A-" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote, "Yet Harron, if anything, is an even more devious provocateur than Ellis was. By treating the book as raw material for an exuberantly perverse exercise in '80s nostalgia, she recasts the go-go years as a template for the casually brainwashing-consumer/fashion/image culture that emerged from them. She has made a movie that is really a parable of today".[10] Time magazine's Richard Corliss wrote, "Harron and co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner do understand the book, and they want their film to be understood as a period comedy of manners".[11] The film has a 66% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 64 metascore on Metacritic.

DVD

A Special Edition DVD was released in 2005. Entertainment Weekly gave it a "B+" rating.[12]

Legacy

Over the years, American Psycho has come more to be viewed as The New York Times initially predicted: a cult classic difficult to categorize. Its influence can be seen in work as disparate as a Kanye West video[13] to the construct that is the main character in Showtime's Dexter. It has also generated academic work that examines the film as an important social critique. [14]

Marketing

As a promotion for the movie, one could register to receive e-mails "from" Patrick Bateman, supposedly to his therapist. The e-mails follow Bateman's life since the events of the film. He discusses such developments as his marriage to (and impending divorce settlement with) his former secretary, Jean, his complete adoration of his son, Patrick Jr., and his efforts to triumph over his business rivals. The e-mails also describe or mention interactions with other characters from the novel, including Timothy Price (Bryce in the film version), Evelyn Williams, Luis Carruthers, Courtney Rawlinson, David Van Patten, Detective Donald Kimball and Marcus Halberstam.

In 2005, the National Entertainment Collectibles Association released an action figure based on Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in the film, as part of its first series of "Cult Classics" action figures.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film was scored by John Cale, with artists such as David Bowie, The Cure, and New Order. The Huey Lewis and the News song "Hip to Be Square" appears in the film and was initially intended to be on the soundtrack album, but was removed from the album due to lack of publishing rights.[15] Atlanta artist James Hall (Mary My Hope/Pleasure Club) also contributed a cover of the Talking Heads song "Psycho Killer" to the soundtrack album.

Sequel

A direct-to-video spin-off, American Psycho 2: All American Girl was released and directed by Morgan J. Freeman.

This spin-off was not based on the novel or the original film and is not connected to subsequent works by Bret Easton Ellis, as its only connection with the original is the death of Patrick Bateman (played by Michael Kremko wearing a face mask) briefly shown in a flashback.

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