American Psycho

Mary Harron is a director or auteur most famous for directing American Psycho. The film is based on the novel written by Bret Easton Ellis, about a wealthy and psychotic executive who lures, tortures and kills people, mostly women. This film is the exact opposite of a 'chick flick.' In fact, when the book came out, it was protested, mostly by women, and was almost never published. The New York Times hailed applauded Harron's interpretation, "From the opening credits, in which drops of blood are confused with red berry sauce drizzled on an exquisitely arranged plate of nouvelle cuisine, the movie establishes its insidious balance of humor and aestheticized gore."

One thing should be recognized here, not just about Harron, but about all auteurs that take on making novels into films, it is risky. Almost always, the novel prevails as the better version because their is more detail and the reader becomes the auteur and how a novel is screened in one's head is always different from another. So, when adapting a book into a film, there is a great risk the readers will not agree with the filmmakers interpretation, which can be seriously detrimental to the films outcome.

Having read the book before seeing the film, I was extra critical of Mary Harron's screen version of American Psycho. I don't want to say I loved the book, because it is the sickest, most disturbing book ever written, but I am a fan. As I read it, my jaw was dropped, and I think there were even a couple times where I had to put it down and walk away. Seriously, if you think the movie crazy, you know nothing. There are images from that book that I could have lived without, that could never be put on screen. Thank you, Mary, for not filming some of the scenes in that book. If you haven't read the book, it's fantastic, but let me just say this, Ellis makes Chuck Palahnuik look like Disney.

Mary Harron does a fantastic job transmitting the tone of the book into the film. This is an incredibly hard thing to do, that might be overlooked. While the book is incredibly disturbing, it's also cynical, and mocks the 'Wall Street' culture, especially through food and the restaurant experience. The book has a lot of lasting images, like how pristine the apartment was, 'the venetian blinds,' and everything was shiny and clean and square. Harron is dead on with this in the film. Mary can't take all the credit here. Editing plays a prominent role on the tone of the film. Also, Christian Bale plays Patrick Bateman perfectly. Because Harron was one of the writers who adapted the novel into the screenplay, I give her more credit. As a writer, I always give the writer the most credit. It all starts with words on paper. She decided to preserve the dialogue from the book, which is great. Still, I have a some problems with the adapted novel.

As I said earlier, there are scenes in this book that should never be made into visuals. Ever. But, in the movie there was at least one scene that didn't happen in the book that was just as horrifying as something that did happen in the book, (here, I'm thinking of the chainsaw scene, which I don't remember happening in the book, but admittedly, it's been a while). The novel is still better, but American Psycho is, in my opinion, one of the best adapted films from a novel.