Double Take 12.19.02: As The Mask Of Sanity Slips

Posted by Geoff Bell on 12.19.2002

Geoff’s back and suffering with Insomnia, also includes an explanation of American Psycho, A warning to stay away from Riding in Cars with Boys and more of The Two Towers.

As the 25th December approaches, everyone’s worried about if their sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, boyfriend or girlfriend are going to like what they’ve being bought. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no “Grinch” but as I’ve got older Christmas has stopped feeling like it used to. That happens to everyone I hear you all say, but I’m not sure it happens to everyone like it has happened to me. First of all, the lights that people put around the front of their homes...what is the point? Especially when you put them up in October, like someone near me did! Parents have got to feel the worst come Christmas time, because if their son or daughter doesn’t have the latest and greatest games console, cellular phone, DVD player or whatever then that parent is going to feel like a failure because of the disappointing look on their offspring’s face. So this Christmas try to spare a thought for your ‘Rents and buy them something special for once.

There goes my mask

Anyway, back to the column. This week I’m going to talk about Mary Harron’s American Psycho starring Christian Bale. The British born actor plays the psychopath Patrick Bateman in the screen adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ controversial book of the same name. A lot of you may have seen the film, and a lot of may not have done so my advice to those who haven’t is go and rent it now! It’s a film that causes some confusion over Bateman. In one scene he is in a bar ordering a drink when he threatens to murder the female bartender. The question of ambiguity that this and many other aspects of the film raise is did Bateman really state his fantasy or did he merely imagine himself saying it. If he did really say it then why didn’t the bartender react? Did the loud music in the bar drown out the threat or was the bartender just too busy getting Bateman’s drink? Or maybe Bateman’s actions are just over lapped by hallucinations.

Clearly Bateman is not all there, and when one of his rivals shows off his business card to a crowd of people it receives more admiration than Bateman’s and he begins to sweat. This is obviously the point where he decides to kill his rival through shear jealousy. His psychosis is established in a number of narrative voice-overs. One particular scene he tries to define himself and begins “There is no real me...there is an idea of myself, some kind of abstraction”. Another famous scene from the film is where Bateman, reflected in a mirror, begins to peel a dry facial mask off and Bateman states, through a voice-over, “I think my mask of sanity is about to slip”. As he peels off this mask, his skin is pulled slightly; thus causing his face to become distorted somewhat. This also occurs in many other scene’s that transmit Patrick’s mental state, one where he and Courtney are in a cab Bateman’s face is distorted by a plastic screen that separates the front seats from the back seats. In an earlier scene Patrick’s face is again distorted, this time by the reflection from a metal menu.

Paul Allen, Bateman’s business rival, is eventually killed in a scene where the violence takes place off-screen. However it does not occur visually and therefore the reliance of Bateman is questionable. Surely if Bateman had committed as many murders as he was supposed to have done, he would’ve been caught. This emphasizes the fact that maybe Patrick didn’t commit the murders, and that he did in fact, just fantasize about them.
There are several instances in which Bateman reveals some truth about his psychosis, and in which he also benefits (or suffers) from not being understood or heard. In all these instances, there is a “justifier” as to why Bateman receives a lack of reaction from the character he is talking to. One instance is where Bateman is in a club, interacting with a group of women. One of them asks Bateman what he does, to which he replies “Murders & Executions”, clearly the woman misunderstands and thinks Bateman has said ‘Mergers & Acquisitions”. The justifier here is that the woman has misunderstood what Bateman has said and also that ‘Mergers & Acquisitions’ is a more logical expectation.

There are many more instances in the film, however I’m not going to go into them all. Instead see if you can identify them and hell if you want, email them to me and then in my next column I’ll list the thirteen instances and name the people who got them right.

Riding in cars with...WHAT THE HELL?!

It may sound like a horror film and although it was horrible sitting through the whole of it. Riding in Cars with Boys is not a horror film. It’s a chick flick that I was forced to watch the other day by my girlfriend. Starring Drew Barrymore as Beverly D’Onofrio, it’s based on a true story. Basically it’s a story about a small town girl who has a baby boy with 15, has to get married because of it. Her marriage then fails and eventually she becomes a famous writer. So guys, if your girlfriend, mother or sister suggest you rent it or even spend 5 minutes watching it, run. Run for all your worth. Run until your legs won’t carry you any longer. Run until you get to either the East or West Coast, just don’t stay and watch it. Unless you plan on getting laid afterwards of course, and if that’s the plan...draw fake eyes on you eyelids and go to sleep.

The Two Towers

Well after waiting for roughly a year, the second installment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy has arrived! That’s right folks, The Two Towers is on official release, once again following the adventures of Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Merry & Pippin as well as introducing us to the people’s of Rohan and Minas Tirith. I’ll be going to see The Two Towers on Sunday 22nd with my brother in law and I have to admit, I’ve very excited. However, I’m afraid to build my expectations up too much, as it may not live up to all the hype. But then again, after seeing trailers for it the battle at Helm’s Deep will be worth waiting for.

And thanks to Kevin Clark who sent me this information on the Uruk Hai and why they’re in the ground.

“Geoff,

I am going to quote a Usenet post I saw once.

The answer to this can be found in Appendix Q of the three-volume novel "Lord of the Rings," written by J.R.R. Tolkien. In short, the caverns of Isengard are filled with water during the spring. The female Uruk-haya lays Her eggs in those pools, which the male Uruk-hai fertilises. By late spring, the larvae, or "Olog-hai" have hatched. Throughout summer, the pools evaporate; by late summer, they are mere mud-pits, and the Olog-hai

Enter their pupa, or lasse-hai phase. After they grow to adulthood, they are dug up by the mature "worker" Uruk-hai.

Saruman simply strengthened his Uruk-hai by adjusting the temperature of the Isengard spawning caverns; by burning the trees, he raised the temperature, thus stimulating the release of certain hormones during the pupal stage.

Cleared it up for me.

Kevin”

Insomnia

After reading Jacob Ziegler’s review of the DVD for Insomnia, I felt I had to comment on this film. I actually went to the cinema to see this film, starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams & Hilary Swank. All the papers over here raved on about Insomnia being a great film, etc. So one Sunday after a football match (or soccer as most of you readers will refer to it as) my friend Craig and I went to see it with one of his crushes at the time. I was totally disappointed by the film, I don’t think I’ve ever been so bored in all my life. I just wanted to leave and go home. So, in my opinion, Insomnia is one to avoid, unless of course you suffer from insomnia and want a cure for it.

Anyway, that’s all for this edition of Double Take, I’ll see you again on Christmas Eve with my Top 20 of 2002 Edition.
Until then, Ciao.

Any feedback, questions or comments in general that you have about anything mentioned in Double Take don’t hesitate to send them to me. I do enjoy seeing what you have to say. And if any of you want to recommend a film to me, that would be great.