You may think "Club" to be more obvious for a "dumber" audience, but I like what they did more because it's more true to the book. "American Psycho" the book Dr0ps the hints MUCH better and isn't nearly as subjective as the film was. The ending of the book IS suprising, but it "feels" much more natural and ultimately expected. The suddeness of the ending revelation in the film doesn't make it "smarter", at least not for me...it damages the rest of the film because it's SO out of leftfield and basically cheapens and practically negates everything we've seen so far. Sloppy direction/writing. Film school 101.
American Psycho on the other hand displays several pieces of evidence pointing toward the murders being in his mind, but they aren't even memorable. You need to go back and watch the movie a second time and a third time until you say "Holy shit... that's clever. I didn't even notice that the first time."
Such as?
Yes, it's great when a movie suprises you and there things you can look for along the way, but ultimately a film's basic "job" is to tell a story that comes together and makes sense no matter how many crazy twists and turns it's gone on...it's NOT the audience's role to do the thinking FOR the film. That's the unfortunate mark of a flawed script, at least in a direct narrative sense
Don't get me wrong, I love the film...I think the satire is absolutely fantastic and as a whole it's one of the most intelligently funny films I've ever seen. "Fight Club" HAD to be a little more obvious because they've made up an entire character, whereas "Psycho" is simply illustrating the delusions in one character's head. As a writer myself, I could hide that MUCH easier than trying to believably show that two characters were actually one for the entire book/film.
And again, Dafoe's character had more to do in the book. Like the ending, this is something that didn't have be used so poorly since it all already existed so perfectly in the book...hence why it's so frustrating to me.
Either way, I DO love the film. Maybe that's why I criticize those specific aspects so intensely. I want it to be perfect, dammit...
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This message was edited by TheMojoPin on 8-18-03 @ 9:13 PM