Christian Bale: Patrick Bateman	Willem Dafoe: Donal
Jared Leto: Paul Allen	Reese Witherspoon: Evelyn
Chloe Sevigny: Jean	Director: Mary Harron

30 Second Bottom Line: A rich, 27-year-old Wall Street broker, becomes a serial killer. Not a slasher movie per se, but a morality statement regarding the direction rich, young men may take, when all reasonable career and financial goals have been met at such a young age.

Story Line: This is Boiler Room fully boiled over. Both movies are about the excesses of greed in young men, but this film takes it one giant step further. When people irritate Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), he gets rid of them in violent ways. Unlike Michael Caine in Shock to the System, who kills people with a humorous twist, Bateman (as in Bates of Psycho) is truly a crazy person. The book upon which the film is based created a stir because it brutalized women in the most demeaning ways. While the violence is referred to more than shown, you do get the message. Bateman is an equal opportunity killer and goes after men and women, rich or poor, black or white, without any type of "ism", race or otherwise.

At first, you believe this is a film about a New York dealmaker of mergers and acquisitions, who is a mass murderer. But after a while, some things just don't add up, and you begin to wonder if Bateman is really doing this, or just wants to do it. It would almost be a relief if these acts were real, because you could say it's just one random person who's gone berserk. To think there may be numbers of people on the edge of this line of destructive behavior is more frightening. As you travel through this film, you get a chance to step back and forth across the line of being a normal, successful person and a Ted Bundy type mass murderer.

Tell Me More About It: The first real hint of satire, is when we see four prosperous guys out for dinner who split the check, when each one has a platinum credit card. A "me" versus "them" attitude is evident when they comment on the success of Jews being able to make money. Bateman is Mr. Impeccable, and his exercise, lotion, and cologne routine puts a capital "V" on vanity.

Released a year after the Columbine High School shooting, the stories appear to have zero connection, but it's clear that "normal" people can and do cross the line to insanity. Will it be as a teenager, a late twenty-something, in a mid- life crisis (the Atlanta day trader), or senior citizen? Will our society permit us to live a balanced life?

The sexual relationships involve friends sleeping with the fiancées of friends; threesomes with hookers; mistaken homosexual advances; and in general, out of whack relationships. Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon), is Bateman's fiancee, who, in spite of him saying he does not love her, still wants to get married, because it's socially the correct thing to do.

Donal (Willem Dafoe) is a detective who figures Bateman must be involved in the disappearance of a fellow stockbroker, Jared (Paul Allen). You begin to figure this may be a fantasy because Donal is a little too softball in his questioning techniques. He invites Bateman out to lunch to ask him where he was the night of Jared's disappearance.

Events happen in which even the Keystone Cops would have been able to gather probable cause for an arrest. But Bateman remains free. At one time when asked what he does for a living, Bateman says, "Murders and executions," rather than mergers and acquisitions, but everyone just hears what they want to hear.

Jean (Chloe Sevigny of Boy's Don't Cry) is Bateman's executive assistant, who could love him. She keeps a respectful distance and he does also, because he is sane enough to know that he is insane and they don't belong together.

Set in 1987 during good financial times, America's values are shown to be off center. Times have gotten even better since then. So where are we now? American Psycho may be much more real than it seems.

Christian Bale: "Mary, Mother of Jesus"-TV	Willem Dafoe: Clear & Present Danger
Jared Leto: The Thin Red Line	Reese Witherspoon: Election
Chloe Sevigny: Boy's Don't Cry	Mary Harron: "Oz"-TV