Rotten
It's well-constructed and acted, but mainly just left me feeling like I needed a shower after an exercise in voyeurism surrounding an event that's still hard to watch.
Mark Rahner, Seattle Times
The Killing of John Lennon
I was nobody until I killed the biggest somebody on earth.
2007 · 1h 54m · N/A Crime, Drama
Overview
The film follows the travels and accounts of Mark Chapman (Jonas Ball) and gives the watcher an insight into his mind. It starts with him in Hawaii and how he does not fit in with anyone including his job; family; friends etc. He says he is searching for a purpose in his life and that it has no direction. He seeks refuge in the public library where he finds the book, 'The Catcher in the Rye'. He becomes obsessed with the book and believes that he himself is the protaganist in the book, Holden Caulfield. He believes the ideas in the book reflect his own personal life and how he does not fit in anywhere and he reads it constantly. He then finds another book in the library about The Beatles singer John Lennon and begins a personal hatred for him.
Director and cast
- Jonas Ball as Mark Chapman
- Joe Abbate as Taxi Driver
- Gail Kay Bell as Psychiatrist
- J. Francis Curley as Security Guard
- Nicole Delorey as Record Shop Girl
- Sofia Dubrawsky as Jude
- Krisha Fairchild as Chapman's mom
- Vera Felice as Prostitute
- James Hadde as Scientologist
- Zero Kazama as Scientologist Leader
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
37%
Tomatometer
Rotten
Gets inside Chapman's head but never under his skin.
Sam Adams, Los Angeles Times
Rotten
Fastidiously researched, dubiously suspenseful character portrait is unable to salvage a lick of hindsight from the tragedy beyond "murderous narcissists are people too."
Aaron Hillis, L.A. Weekly
Rotten
Even if you can forgive [director] Piddington's mangling of the basics, you will find it hard to overlook his frantic use of slo-mo, a wobbly camera, freeze frames, double exposures and a close-up of a single eye.
Kyle Smith, New York Post
Rotten
The only revelations in The Killing of John Lennon are those we could have picked up ourselves, assuming we cared enough to do so.
Gene Seymour, Newsday
Comments
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