Movie Mondays: American Psycho

And we're back with another Movie Monday!

Today we're looking at a comparison and review of American Psycho, movie starring Christian Bale, book written by Bret Easton Ellis.

American Psycho is an interesting, dark and satirical look at the 1980's Wall Street yuppies. The story is told in first person by the main character, Patrick Bateman who narrates his day-to-day activities as a wealthy 20-something investment banker. The dialogue goes from talking about his expensive stereo system, music, conversations about fashion with his colleagues to his murderous bloodlust. This story has created a lot of controversy, coming out first in the 90's due to the highly detailed nature of sex, violence and the treatment of others (homophobia, misogyny.)

Without spoiling too much, I have to say that I feel like the movie had more to it than the book could tell. Yes. That's right. I liked the movie better than the book. I felt like I had a hard time getting through the novel as the dialogue seemed to drag on and on in some places and felt that the pacing could have been greatly improved. Although I understand what these parts of dialogue represent, it's also incredibly difficult for me to not want to completely skip chapters.

I felt that the film itself was just a better portrayal of the ideas that Bret Easton Ellis was trying to convey, from the juxtapose of lifestyle to the details of Bateman's relationship with Evelyn. I think there's a reason when people mention American Psycho, they think of the movie and not of the original book. No need to skip chapters here to actually make a point here, folks, Mary Harron had the right idea when she decided to recreate this story.