8 Little Known Tics In Christian Bale's Performance That Made American Psycho's Patrick Bateman Epic
5. The Moment His Mask Of Sanity Drops For A Second
Speaking of soulless smiles!
If ever there was a moment which summed up the facade Patrick Bateman is hiding behind in public for the majority of the flick, it comes in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it change of expression during a scene set at a dry cleaners.
Fresh off of letting rip at the folks charged with cleaning his blood-soaked sheets, Bale's Bateman comes into contact with Marie Dame's Victoria and begs her to speak to the folks in charge about those frustrating "cranberry juice" stains. With Bateman trying his level best to keep a lid on things and not completely let rip as he rushes out of the store, Bale makes the ingenious choice to go from a beaming smile to a cold, blank expression within a minuscule beat mid-exit.
Not only does this reveal the character's complete lack of interest in wasting time conversing or planning a future date with Victoria, but it also highlights the fact that Bateman is simply playing a public-friendly character himself here and only reveals his true self for the briefest of moments as his mind turns to his next focus/place he needs to be.