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Dahmer
review by Dan Lybarger, 22 November 2002
When Jeffrey Dahmer was on trial
for murdering seventeen men in the early '90s, my roommate and I
tuned into Court TV hoping to get a look at the world's most famous
cannibal. Both of us were college students and, while we wouldn't
admit it, wanted to know every detail about his heartless acts of
violence. After a few minutes we quickly stopped reveling in other
people's tragedies and decided to do something more exciting, like
studying.
The defense and the prosecution had
the rare gift of making Dahmer's cruelty as galvanizing as an 8:00
a.m. macroeconomics lecture. Worse, the man sitting at the defense
table was not the defiant, brazenly demonic fellow we had imagined
or even hoped to see. Instead he was sort of a geeky guy who simply
blended with his surroundings.
This blandness enabled him to
escape detection and capture for an inordinately long period of
time. And it's what writer-director David Jacobson chooses to
emphasize his is new biopic on the serial killer. Jacobson rightly
concludes that his viewers probably know the extent of Dahmer's
crimes and don't need any reminders or embellishments. Those who are
longing to see Dahmer (Jeremy Renner) chow down on a seven-course
meal of gore will be deeply disappointed. In fact, Jacobson avoids
depicting the cannibalism directly. He even avoids courtroom scenes
or Dahmer's arrest.
Before the title character appears
on the screen, there's already a creepy sense that something is a
bit off. As the voice of Patsy Cline longingly wails in the
background, a series of machines stamp out little chocolate men.
Thanks to the context, the candy looks strangely unappetizing. When
Dahmer finally enters, he's wearing the same uniform that everyone
at the plant is, making him a cog in a greater mechanism.
From this point on, Jacobson
refuses to follow most of the serial killer movie rules. We do see
Dahmer attack, but the victim's wounds are out of the frame. Only
toward the end do we get to see any of the gore or dismemberment.
Jacobson instead focuses on how everyone around Dahmer continually
missed out on what now seem to be obvious signs of how dangerous he
really was. Without the audience's hindsight, the supporting
characters think that he's either just a sad drunk or a fellow who
needs to learn how to pick up other guys at gay bars without first
drugging them. When Dahmer tells a cop that he's had a bad night,
can't sleep and just wants to take his lawn clippings (actually the
hacked-up body of his first victim) to the dump at 3:00 a.m., foul
play seems obvious to us. To the policeman pulling him over,
however, it seems only a little strange.
Jacobson gives Dahmer a
consideration that the murderer never game his victims. In a long
encounter Dahmer has with a potential meal named Rodney (Artel
Kayaru), Renner gets to show how loneliness and other frustrations
led Dahmer to kill. The dialogue's a bit stiff and obvious, but the
sequence gives a strong hint to the torments that made him a menace
to others and himself without remotely excusing his actions. This is
not small feat. In some ways, making Dahmer more human enables us to
imagine how he was able to lure people to their doom. At times the
modest budget is a liability. Dahmer has few locations and
gets talky. On the plus side, the cast is solid, and the lack of
familiar stars makes the situations seem more believable and
surprising. The only "name" actor in the cast is Bruce Davison (X-Men),
who's wonderful as Dahmer's concerned but clueless father.
Jacobson and editor Bipasha Shom
don't present Dahmer's story in chronological order and go for an
almost stream-of-consciousness approach. Toward the end they even
split the narrative between one of Dahmer's later attacks and his
first murder. Most "based-on-a-true" story films aren't this
creative. It may be a little off-putting and disorienting at first.
The momentum of the narrative is slowed at times, but, in the end,
Dahmer forces viewers to reach their own conclusions, which
is oddly refreshing. Despite the meager resources available, Renner
convincingly ages from Dahmer's teens to his late twenties.
Jacobson and his collaborators
deserve a lot of credit for treating both Dahmer and his victims
with respect. The film has been screening theatrically, but there is
a forthcoming DVD with a fitfully insightful commentary track and a
featurette. They seem quickly put together and don't add much to the
package. The stylized cover showing a leering Renner is
inappropriate because it doesn’t cue potential viewers on what often
makes the movie work. Dahmer directed me to something I
missed when I glimpsed the real killer: sometimes the people who
should fill us fill us with fear don't because they look just like
everybody else. |
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