“I like to dissect girls. Did you know I’m utterly insane?”
What’s it all about? A Wall Street yuppie hides his psychopathic alter-ego from his co-workers, friends and fiancée while indulging in more and more sexually explicit and gruesome fantasies.
I can’t picture anyone else in Hollywood playing Patrick Bateman. There’s just this Bale-esque quality to the character I think would elude most actors. It’s the same quality I saw in THE PRESTIGE and 3:10 TO YUMA. Maybe I think this simply because Christian Bale was cast or maybe because Bale is completely aces in AMERICAN PSYCHO, courtesy of the unbelievable amount of dedication he puts into his roles. To be quite honest, I was more than a little shocked that I’ve only written about one Christian Bale film — EQUILIBRIUM — before now.
But there are so many stories surrounding the film’s casting, writing and directing. This movie could have went in so many other directions; Leonardo DiCaprio was cast as Patrick Bateman, even showing up on set before the role was recast with Bale. I can’t picture baby-faced DiCaprio playing Bateman — or maybe I just don’t want to picture poor Jack with a chainsaw at the back of Rose’s head.
Another weird tidbit I know about this movie: apparently, during the iconic business card scene, Christian Bale sweated on cue for each of its numerous takes. He sweated on cue — repeatedly. I didn’t know that was physically possible. But I guess if anyone has that much dedicated intensity to even try it out, it would be Christian Bale. And of course he’d succeed.
I’m really excited to watch EQUILIBRIUM again in the next couple of days. I rented it at some obscure rental place on Queen Street. I can never find it anywhere else. Like AMERICAN PSYCHO, EQUILIBRIUM is chiefly concerned with emotions, and what happens when they are unavailable to the protagonist — but, you know, with guns and a puppy.
Favourite Scene: It’s a toss-up between the iconic business card scene — “My god. It even has a watermark.” — and Patrick’s contemplation on Genesis during his threesome with the prostitute and the call-girl. Each scene shows the conflict in Patrick’s character: his detachment from the people around him and obsession with cultural artifice.
Notes: Directed by Mary Harron; Produced by Joseph Drake, Christian Halsey Solomon, Chris Hanley, Michael Paseornek, Edward R. Pressman, Jeff Sackman; Written by Mary Harron, Guinevere Turner, Bret Easton Ellis; Starring Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Reese Witherspoon, Chloë Sevigny, Jared Leto, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Cara Seymour, Samantha Mathis; Music by John Cale, Eve Egoyan; Cinematography by Andrzej Sekula.
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My friend just try to watch it but couldn't. I like it but she said it kind of sucked.
Fact: when I watched this for the first time, I realized that some scenes had my old place in them when year before I was born. I recognized one scene that was filmed in the dry cleaners across the street. It was in the St. Lawrence market area where I often walked onto a fake set thinking a new place had opened up ie. fake fryshop full of extras, actual fake fry smell and no fries from "Detroit Rock City".