American Psycho

[shiznit]

Im usually pretty good with working out film plots, but for the life of me can not understand American Psycho. How the hell does he get away with it all, is he just imaging everthing?. Please some ideas are required.

Cheers Guys

[Greedyfly]

It was all in his head!

[andy hughes]

I've not seen the film, but the novel was designed as a savage satire of the empty 'yuppie' society. It is written in the first person, and the 'hero' obsesses about his deigner labels and his superior attitude, which he compounds with acts of organised and random violence.

[LeMarchand]

He was imagining most of it - from what I remember of the book, it was hinted that this was the case as well.

[mike.hobbs3]

read the book, it's better by miles.

[deep_fish]

I too have only read the book. His ability to get away with it comes from the fact that in this yuppie world, image and style are the only factors to which attention is paid, consequently, an individual can hide behind the image they wish to project.  That is why, in the boo, so much detail is paid to the designer names of the clothes he wears etc. Nothing else matters.

Hope this helps.

[Mattk]

i was also confused by the plot but it was indeed all in his head

but i did think that christian bale put in an amazing performance

[johngammon]

American Psycho is like several recent films - Fight Club and Mulholland Drive are others - in which it turns out that the protagonist dreamed or fantasised all or much of the action.  It's a bit of a cop out really, enabling us to follow the hero's crimes but releasing him from the burden of punishment or even acknowledgement of what he's done.  It's not a new technique, but you tend to associate it with fantasy or comedy-drama anyway:  Superman's been having "imaginary stories" for years, Gerry Anderson always used to put a "dream episode" in his series, The Prisoner did it, and so on.  Further back, Edward G Robinson in Scarlet Street was a mild mannered, middle aged man who gets involved in sex, larceny and murder but in the end, oh blessed relief - all a dream. This technique can be fun, such as in The Wizard of Oz, but the way it's done in the three recent films above is a good indication of how vapid a lot of US cinema is these days.  In the case of American Psycho in particular it's a way of trying to possess a cake while at the same time scoffing the lot.