Has he ever bested his performance as Patrick Bateman? It's been 20 years and I think it's definitely still his finest work.
shareNothing else I've seen him in has been anywhere near as good, although I certainly haven't seen all his films.
It seems like Patrick Bateman was the one role where he really opened up and let the camera see his inner life, AND where he had a sense of humor, when he's normally closed-off and humorless.
I'll go even further back and say it was Empire of the Sun. He was exceptional/borderline perfect in that role. That was 34 years ago.
shareThat is a great movie, and great performance. I think what I like about his EOTS character is mostly how much of a real boy he was. He was himself, and that works so well in that movie. His reactions are genuine, but in that way it feels like less of a performance. Psycho shows him as an extremely precise craftsman, someone clearly skilled, and experienced. Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that he was a physically perfect human specimen in that film. It was before he did his crazy Machinist weight drop, something that permanently affected his body. He got super skinny again for The Fighter, only to buff up again. American Psycho was just before all that, and in a way I guess it's the culmination of that realness we first responded to in Empire of the Sun.
shareWhat I loved about Empire was he was a spoiled, pampered little boy and his character grew into a man with PTSD by the end. Watching him slowly lose his innocence and how Bale mastered those emotions blows me away even today.
Looking at him in that last scene where his parents don't even recognize him... it's the only scene in a movie that ever made me weep. I didn't recognize him either.