NOT QUITE 'PSYCHO' ENOUGH.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

The film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' difficult, scandalous novel ``American Psycho'' is about as good as it could conceivably be. Intelligent, wickedly witty, faithful to the spirit and much of the well-written letter of the book while judiciously paring down its shocking violence to digestible, ``Scream'' movie levels, it's a genuinely exemplary job.

What we learn from this, however, is that ``American Psycho'' is a book that defies filming.

Close as director Mary Harron and co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner come to capturing Ellis' demonic, satirical essence, their version of this most visceral of contemporary psychological studies feels stubbornly studied, dryly intellectualized.

Of course, any alternative probably would have been worse. You may recall the firestorm that greeted the novel's release in 1991. While the point of the piece was to make fun of (and some serious comments about) the dehumanizing money madness of the Reagan era, Ellis' central conceit - that young Wall Street types were so twisted by greed that there was no real difference between them and serial killers - was presented in such minutely described, gory detail that the book was irreparably branded as snuff pornography.

Canadian filmmaker Harron's first feature, ``I Shot Andy Warhol,'' was, like ``Psycho,'' obsessed with unhinged New York scenesters. But it also had a strong, if unconventional, feminist viewpoint, and she certainly brings a similar perspective to this testosterone-poisoned project. Rather than the treatise on cutting up women it could easily have become, the movie is all about male panic at its silliest.

And like the book, the film insinuates that the travesties its unreliable narrator Patrick Bateman commits could be all or partially happening in his head.

The young British actor Christian Bale (``Empire of the Sun'') plays appearance-obsessed Bateman. He makes more money than he knows what to do with (one of the story's better gags is that we never learn what he actually does for a living), but is completely paranoid about how he's perceived in the professional pecking order. He keeps confusing interchangeable dark-suited colleagues with others, and is often mistaken for different people himself. Life is mainly about looking perfect, possessing the best business cards and making restaurant reservations (the eating part, for these ego gods, is optional).

Bateman's fiancee (Reese Witherspoon) is as obtusely selnvolved as he is, so she's naturally oblivious to her true love's emerging murderous tendencies. She might know that he's having an affair with a co-worker's coked-up bride-to-be (Samantha Mathis), but she's probably cheating with someone in their incestuous, overprivileged circle, too. Meanwhile, Bateman keeps telling his adoring secretary (``Boys Don't Cry's'' Chloe Sevigny) to wear better clothes.

One night Bateman, well, baits, then murders, a bum in an alley - and is quite pleased to learn that he can. A hated business rival (Jared Leto) gets taken out next. Having finally found his outlet for individual expression, Bateman organizes increasingly elaborate - and deranged - torture/murder scenarios. And you know he's a sadist because he prefaces his rampages with extended commentaries on the deep inner meanings of Phil Collins and Whitney Houston songs.

This is all as dark and archly funny as it sounds. But somehow, the whole thing, if you'll pardon the expression, cut deeper when you had to visualize it in your mind (it was a sneaky, disturbing way of making readers identify with Bateman, while the film medium creates a distancing safety zone).

Part of the disjuncture here is due to Bale's performance. Not that it's bad - and it's certainly committed - but it's at least partially misjudged. He plays Bateman manic and jittery, which is a justifiable choice; that's probably how the guy looks to others. But the play is pitched from his point of view, and he inarguably sees himself as a paragon of cool perfection. The character's whole dramatic arc is from confident psychopath to uncertain psychotic; starting that journey already nervous, Bale doesn't seem to go all that far.

And no matter how astute and careful an adaptation of ``American Psycho'' this film, quite admirably, may be, going way, way, way too far is still what the story is all about.

THE FACTS

--The film: ``American Psycho'' (R; violence, sex, nudity, drug use, language).

--The stars: Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Chloe Sevigny, Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon, Samantha Mathis, Cara Seymour.

--Behind the scenes: Directed by Mary Harron. Written by Harron and Guinevere Turner, based on Bret Easton Ellis' novel. Produced by Edward R. Pressman, Chris Hanley and Christian Halsey Solomon. Released by Lions Gate Films.

--Running time: One hour, 44 minutes.

--Playing: Citywide.

--Our rating: Two and one half stars.

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Box: THE FACTS (see text)