Chapter 27

(2008)

Directed by

J.P. Schaefer

Review by Todd Plucknett

J.D. Schaefer’s directorial debut Chapter 27 is a tough film chronicling the three days before the death of John Lennon, based on the novel “Let Me Take You Down”, by Jack Jones. It is a disturbing and mostly hypnotic tale that is bound to divide audiences. For me, it was worth the watch.

The true story follows Mark David Chapman (Jared Leto), the man who would eventually kill Lennon (Mark Lindsay Chapman). Chapman was a geeky, nearing on obsessive, Lennon fan, who waited outside his New York apartment faithfully for three days, just hoping that he could meet his hero. In those three days, he meets the appropriately named Jude (Lindsay Lohan) and a photographer named Paul (Judah Friedlander). He makes immediate friends with Jude and her friend, after an initial awkward encounter and conversation. She was also one of the crazed Beatles fanatic/paparazzi that were stalking outside the hotel. She convinces Mark to go buy the newest Lennon album so that when he meets him, he could have him sign it. The rest of the film, Chapman is never seen not carrying that album and his copy of “The Catcher in the Rye”. It makes for an interesting image, one that will long stay in your head. Also, whenever he gets a Bible, he opens to the book of John and makes it read “The Gospel According to John Lennon”. One of the many intriguing things about this picture is that you really have no clue what is actually going on inside the head of this man.

Leto is this movie. He not only had a 60 pound-gaining physical transformation on the level of Robert De Niro in Raging Bull or Christian Bale in The Machinist, but he got completely lost in the role. You do not feel like you are watching Leto at all after about thirty seconds of scratching your head wondering if that is truly Leto under there. Every inch of his body is Chapman. Everything about the performance is flawless, everything from the way he carried himself, his expressions and body language, to his subtle accent. This is the reason to see this film. Lohan is decent in most of her scenes. Friedlander was very good, showing us the talent that he first displayed in American Splendor. The oddly named Mark Lindsay Chapman plays Lennon’s single scene just fine. None of these performers could keep up with Leto though. It is a staggering performance.

The title of the film most likely comes as a reference to “The Catcher in the Rye��, which has 26 chapters. Throughout the film, Chapman reveals that he feels like he is Holden Caufield, the institutionalized main character of that book. But why did Chapman exactly want to kill Lennon? Was it just for that moment of celebrity? Was he trying to write a final chapter to the book? Was it that he actually felt that Lennon was a god? These questions all come up throughout the film, forcing the final inevitable and unforgettable scenes into a mystifying blur. The film gets inside the mind of Chapman, but his motives are somewhat undisclosed, making the central character that much more interesting to stick around with. The film is only 84 minutes, and I feel that it could have been longer. The time really slides by quickly, and it would have been just fine to watch Leto prowl around that sidewalk meeting people for a while longer, if only to get to know more about this obsessed psycho-nerd.

There are a lot of things that this movie does that deserve recognition. The last half hour or so are completely mesmerizing. You know eventually what is going to happen, but this film shows what it truly must have been like standing on that sidewalk for those final days. The photography was done with a very gloomy realism, which effectively adds to the tension and overall intrigue of the film. Watching Leto on screen is such a pleasure. There are certain scenes and elements that will remind the audience of watching Travis Bickle patrol around the city in Taxi Driver. Another comparison that came to my mind was that the film was if In the Line of Fire followed John Malkovich’s character around, rather than Clint Eastwood’s. It is a very original and satisfying experience. It may be difficult to watch and unsettling to many audiences, but one cannot argue with its novelty and astonishing central performance.

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