'American Psycho,' directed by Mary Harron and released in 2000, is a provocative and chilling satire that dissects the hedonistic and superficial lifestyle of 1980s American corporate culture through the lens of its deranged protagonist.
Based on Bret Easton Ellis's novel, the film follows Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), a young, handsome, and affluent investment banker in Manhattan. Patrick leads an externally impeccable life, complete with a prestigious job, an upscale apartment, a beautiful fiancée Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon), and an obsessive daily routine to maintain his appearance. Despite his outward success, Patrick's life is void of any emotional depth or moral compass.
Beneath the polished veneer of his yuppie persona, Patrick harbors a dark and violent secret: he is a sadistic serial killer. His victims range from his colleagues to sex workers and random individuals, chosen seemingly without rhyme or reason. Patrick's killings are an outlet for his profound inner emptiness, rage, and psychotic tendencies, which contrast starkly with his slick, corporate image.
One of the central dynamics in the film is Patrick's interaction with his co-workers, particularly his jealousy of his more successful colleague, Paul Allen (Jared Leto). In a fit of envy and resentment, Patrick brutally murders Paul after luring him into his apartment. He then goes to great lengths to cover up his crime, including impersonating Paul and sending messages from Paul's apartment to make people believe he is still alive and has simply left the country.
Throughout the movie, the lines between Patrick's violent fantasies and reality become increasingly blurred. His confessions of his crimes are largely ignored or misunderstood by his self-absorbed peers, further contributing to the ambiguity of whether his murders are real or figments of his psychotic imagination.
This uncertainty culminates in a frenzied killing spree, with Patrick randomly shooting a janitor, a security guard, and several police officers. He ends up confessing his murderous deeds in a frantic voicemail to his lawyer, Harold Carnes.
However, the climax of the film adds a final layer of complexity and uncertainty. When Patrick returns to Paul Allen's apartment, where he left multiple dismembered bodies, he finds it spotlessly clean and for sale. A real estate agent tacitly urges him to leave and never return, giving no indication of having discovered any bodies. Furthermore, his lawyer dismisses his confession as a ludicrous joke, insisting that he had lunch with Paul Allen in London days ago.
'American Psycho' concludes without providing a clear answer as to whether Patrick Bateman is truly a serial killer or if his violent tendencies were entirely imagined. Regardless, the movie presents a scathing critique of the shallow, self-obsessed culture of Wall Street in the 1980s. It uses the character of Patrick Bateman, whether a murderer or just a deeply disturbed individual, as a symbol of the dehumanizing effects of excessive materialism and superficiality.