Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is an empty man.  He lacks emotion, he lacks a sense of reality, and seriously lacks a genuine sense of humanity.  "There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman...but I simply am not there."  For whatever perverse reason, Parick Bateman is completely disassociated from the rest of humanity.  He's a Wall Street executive that really does nothing all day long, but earns loads of money despite it.  He finds many people dispicable from his girlfriend Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon) to his own co-workers to the random homelessman on the street.  By night, he has a terrible bloodlust that he is slowly losing control of.  But the question ends up being - what is reality and what is just pure fantasy?  This is a dark, dark journey through the mind of one demented and empty individual - welcome to the life of Patrick Bateman.

Christian Bale is a marvel!  I really was not familiar at all with Bale before this film, but afterwards, I took close notice of him.  When I heard he was up for the role of Batman / Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins - I was 100% in support of him and he proved me and many others right.  The man has brilliant acting abilities, and fully immerses himself within his characters.  As Patrick Bateman, he plays the role with a lot of fun.  The manic and maddening nature of Bateman is brought out fully under Bale's talents, and it becomes a wholly satisfying performance that will disturb and entertain you.  Bateman is a seriously sick man, and honestly has no comfort zone in this world of ours - probably why he becomes lost in his own world of fantasy.  Whatever the case, Bale just plays it up like I believe no one else ever possibly could.

The supporting cast is wonderful as well, and give quite the counter-balance to Bateman's madness and hysteria.  Reese Witherspoon has a small, yet pertinent role as Bateman's girlfriend who is just a regular high society snob that's rather oblivious to Patrick in general.  Willem Dafoe wonderfully portrays Detective Donald Kimball who is hired to investigate the disappearance of one of Patrick's co-workers - Paul Allen (Jared Leto).  Through the brilliance of Dafoe's acting and Mary Harron's directing, you never quite know what Kimball does or doesn't know.  He keeps Bateman guessing (not to mention sweating).  The entire cast is just great.  They all play very intriguing characters, and they all do so extremely well.  There's not a negative note about any of it.

The music in this film plays up the off-balance mental state of Bateman.  It goes between very classy music, very high class stuff, and Bateman's love of contemporary pop music (this being set in the late 80s brings forth Phil Collins, Huey Lewis, and Robert Palmer).  When this music is set against particular scenes, it accentuates Bateman's dementia to an extreme.  The score is beautifully composed by John Cale, and it was an absolute stroke of genius to take this route.

There are a lot of great sequences in this film, none that I will spoil for you, but many are there to reveal the fact that Patrick Bateman tries to emulate certain behaviors.  From a pornographic video to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, he integrates them into his twisted fantasies, but there remains the question - how real are they?

All in all, American Psycho is a very disturbing and demented film, but it's wholly entertaining.  You can indulge yourself in Bateman's over-the-top manic madness, or get completely freaked out by it - or both.  Whatever the case, director Mary Harron delivered a unique and fascinating adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel.  It gave Christian Bale what was most likely his breakout role, and solidified itself as a modern classic.  I absolutely love this film, and if that means I'm a bit strange, then I find that to be nothing new.  A perfect 10 out of 10 on my behalf - view and enjoy.  Oh, and make sure you pick up the unrated version - it's absolutely the better version!