The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 57

www.01iio.com Akron Beacon Journal Friday, April 14, 2000 G5 ATJTHEJVIOVIES The bottom line is that Harron simply didn't understand this story; her ultimate message is nearly 180 degrees different from what it should have been. If you're making a movie about a guy who murders innocent people as a form of social commentary, you'd better understand why he's doing it. When Bateman comes across a homeless panhandler, he earnestly asks the man why he doesn't get a job. Not surprisingly, the bum has no valid answer -so Bateman is left with a decision. It's the same uncomfortable choice facing anyone who has ever been bothered by a street person: He can give this guy some money (even though he has done nothing to deserve it and is already consuming other people's taxes) or he can give him nothing.

Bateman, of course, chooses the latter. He also stabs the panhandler to death, which is what makes him different from me and (presumably) you. And as the plot of American Psycho stumbles toward its conclusion, this process of hunting and escaping becomes more important than the killer's actual motives. Surprisingly, this film is not as gory as you might anticipate (it's no more graphic than Scream and far gentler than Reservoir Dogs), but the film incarnation of Patrick Bateman is a sadly un- charismatic serial killer. He's barely disturbing, and I never found myself rooting for him against my will.

There is a certain stiffness to the acting in American Psycho, which is probably intentional (these are not real people as much as they are Reagan-era archetypes). Bale's performance is polished and workmanlike, but it's hard to watch him without wishing the role had gone to high-profile pretty boy Leonardo DiCaprio, who was originally slated to play Bateman and would have made the whole project subversive and creepy. Chloe Sevigny (Boys Don't Cry) plays Bateman's lonely secretary and Reese Witherspoon (Election) is his insipid girlfriend, but both have been better in previous roles. I will not give away the ending to American Psycho, but I will say this: The last three scenes are implausible and unnecessary (and totally unrelated to the book) and the ending includes the cheapest, most manipulative trick in filmmaking. Chuck Klosterman is a Beacon Journal's film writer.

Contact him at or by phone at 330-996-3758. Wrong Making killer feel sorry misses point of story Continued from Page Gl Granted, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is not "nice" in the conventional sense; he doesn't spend a lot of quality time with his girlfriend, he doesn't try to make his world a better place and he has a habit of killing prostitutes with chain saws. But the downfall of American Psycho is that Patrick ends up feeling really sorry about all this, which completely misses the point. This is supposed to be a commentary about the shallow, unemotive emptiness of 1980s commercialism; the fact that Bateman regrets his sinister audacity ultimately makes the film symbolic of nothing (or at least nothing important). What makes this collapse so disappointing is that Harron puts the script in motion beautifully.

Bateman is the worst kind of successful human; His life is consumed by vanity, consumerism and status. He lectures endlessly on the brand of hair and skin products he buys. He loves to discuss the philosophical minutia of Huey Lewis and Phil Collins, pop artists who consciously make music so innocuous that it appeals to everybody (and thereby matters to no one). Bateman and his Wall Street co-workers spend a lot of their time comparing the designs and fonts of their business cards; this is the kind of thing they worry about. Still, there are glimpses into Bateman's character that illustrate a dark side of human nature that's very real, and that's when American Psycho works.

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