Portrait of the slasher as a young man

>> Mary Harron returns with the controversial American Psycho

By MATTHEW HAYS

American Psycho is the kind of film that attracts massive amounts of media hype. First off, there are its literary roots, the ultracontroversial late '80s Bret Easton Ellis novel of the same name, a book that inspired protest for its alleged misogyny.

Then there was the choice of Mary Harron, the Canadian director who made the critically acclaimed '96 film I Shot Andy Warhol, about radical feminist Valerie Solanas (notably, her first feature). Then there was her dismissal from the project, in mid-stream: Leonardo DiCaprio had suggested he was intrigued by playing the book's twisted yuppie protagonist, Patrick Bateman; when Harron said he was all wrong for the part, she was canned. Then, after DiCaprio had second thoughts, Harron and her casting call for Bateman--British actor Christian Bale--were brought back on board.

And, there's the Canadian angle on the controversy. Shortly before shooting commenced last year in Toronto, lobbying began by Canadians Concerned About Violence in Entertainment to have government support for the film pulled. The American Psycho novel, claimed the group, served as a major inspiration for Canada's most famous serial killer of recent memory, Paul Bernardo.

"Actually, the book wasn't Bernardo's," Harron corrects, when I bring up the book's alleged murderous connection. "It was found on Karla Homolka's bedside table. But she never claimed that it had an impact. That was largely a tabloid fantasy story. The judge dismissed it during their trial."



My own private psycho

Harron didn't think too much about Bernardo or Homolka when making the film--she had her own demon to worry about, in particular Patrick Bateman, the amoral centrepiece of Psycho. Bateman, brought to life by Bale, lands in the movie much as he appears in the book: a man caught up in superficial artifice, a quintessential yuppie scumbag who murders others, devoid of a conscience. What Harron did have to change was the extensive use of brand names in the book, which pointed up excessive materialism (corporations made good and sure the filmmakers knew that using their logos or names was not an option).

For Harron, the literally woman-devouring Bateman held a distinct interest from the first time she encountered the book. Though a flashpoint for the feminist group NOW, Harron and her co-screenwriter, lesbian Guinevere Turner, saw Bateman as a heterosexual male ripe for deconstructing, a potent symbol of a culture in decline. And the director is certainly aware that, like Susan Faludi did last year when she penned a book entirely about men (Stiffed), she opens herself up to criticism from feminists, charging that she's abandoned the cause.

"The irony is, women have generally taken to this movie. [Village Voice critic] Amy Taubin loved it. Many of the men have hated it; the New York Post hated it. Roger Ebert savaged it. He said it was well-made, but... The author liked it, though, which made me happy." (Ellis' review appears in the current issue of Gear).



Not your average slasher film

In order to avoid making another gratuitous slasher film, Harron also consciously cut back on the gore scenes that ran throughout the book. She says she wanted the film to be "disturbing but not offensive," and wanted to maintain the book's sense of humour while also creating ample sympathy for Bateman's many victims. "Good art can be redemptive, I hope," she says.

What is retained is Bateman's slip into madness, when it becomes utterly unclear whether what he's experiencing is fantasy or reality. As such, the film American Psycho starts to feel a lot like Eyes Wide Shut, an entirely ambiguous film that left audiences entirely cold. Harron hasn't seen Kubrick's last film ("I haven't had time to see anything," she explains), but appreciates the comparison. "People might have trouble with it," she concedes of her Psycho. "The bottom drops out of everything. Hollywood cinema is almost always based in cinematic, psychological realism. People like to know who to root for, they like their moral distinctions clear. I loved a movie like [Todd Solondz's] Happiness, which was so ambiguous.

"I may not win any popularity contests with this film," she concedes. "But I feel I made the right choices. My feeling is the film will find its audience."

American Psycho opens Friday, April 14