Chapter 27 (2007)

Touches You

Sorry, this movie sucks

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Surprisingly good. Surprising that, despite starring Lindsay Lohan, it is good.Explores the days and hours leading up to the murder of John Lennon, as seen from the perspective of his killer, Mark David Chapman. Much time is spent examining Chapman's mindset, and his obsession with the book "The Catcher in the Rye". Pretty good acting by Jared Leto as Chapman. Even Lindsay Lohan is OK here.Pacing and editing of the movie is excellent. It could easily have gotten bogged down in pretentious navel-gazing and ended 30+ minutes longer, but moves along smoothly and doesn't overstay its welcome.

Many viewers seem to want to blame the director of this film for shooting John Lennon all over again, or emphasize that former sigh-guy Leto put on 80 pounds to inhabit the slovenly, corpulent body of Mark David Chapman and to no avail Those of us who lived through the Beatles, who admired them, were horrified by what seemed to be an inexplicable killing--and wanted explanations, as we want to understand the killing of a beloved celebrity or a president.As depicted in this film, the twisted psyche of this killer is not revealed--as as Friday says in Dragnet, we just get the facts, which are vivid enough to give us some idea of the weird hallucinations that went on in the mind of a killer obsessed with one of the most influential men on the planet. Since you know how this story is bound to end, you only might want to watch it if you want to see an acting tour-de-force or get some notion of what kind of sickness infested the man who called himself Holden. This film is not a cheerer-upper, and doesn't offer the usual voyeuristic excitements, but it seems sincere and well-assembled and Leto deserves credit for not wanting always to be The Dreamboat Guy.

this film is very hard to review. i watched it because i think Jared Leto is a very good actor and i was fascinated by the story of the murder of John Lennon as i have heard of the name Mark David Chapman so many times in my life.. overall this film has very bad reviews but i think people don't like it because the film itself has sympathy for Mark David Chapman. i think that this film was a disturbing and unnerving account of the lead up to John Lennon's death and i thought it was quite good. Jared Leto's performance for me is outstanding in this film and was one of the reasons why i kept my eye on the screen, without Leto this film wouldn't have fascinated me as much. as a piece in itself its pretty good the dialogue is OK and the directing is alright but nothing special.i would possibly see this film again but only because of Leto's performance. if you like Leto see this film. it is quite fascinating but the film is very dark and very disturbing more so than i expected. the film really makes you visualise how this man killed John Lennon and how he was just a complete psychopath. but this film doesn't answer the question why because there is no answer to why John Lennon was murdered. i would rate this film 6.5-7 out of 10. its good but nothing special.

Mark David Chapman (Jared Leto) has flown from Hawaii to New York to meet John Lennon. This is his second trip. This time he's going to do something big; he just doesn't know if it's going to be a good or bad thing. There are a couple of ways of interpreting that line. I like the inference that he knows what he's going to do, he just doesn't know if it's considered good or bad.The film is a remarkable journey into the mind of a deranged madman, and it's good because that's all it is. We don't get distracted by following John Lennon, or following the hippie scene of New York, or even meeting anybody other than Mark himself. There are basically two other characters. Jude (Lindsay Lohan) is a fellow Beatles fan hoping for a chance to meet the legend. It is a little strange when she becomes friendly with the clearly unstable "fan", but she provides a great turning point for Mark when he wants to spend more time with her—but not if she's going to distract him from his target.The next character is Paul (Judah Friedlander), a paparazzo-type who hangs out in front of the Dakota apartment building capturing Lennon and his compatriots in photographs. He's probably used to on-edge fans desperate to get a glimpse of their hero and is fairly friendly towards Mark. He provides another turning point when Mark met John Lennon and got his autograph and Paul was there and got a picture of them. He was so excited, he almost forgot his ultimate purpose.But that day was Monday, December 8, 1980. Monday was important, because Monday was a day which Holden Caulfield had a small adventure. It was reported that Mark David Chapman believed he was Holden Caulfield, but either way, he was very fond of J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" and believed Caulfield was telling him to get rid of phony people.The exact reason Chapman did what he did isn't really known. It has been speculated that he believed Lennon's songs were promoting blasphemy. It also seems likely that he found his current lifestyle was disingenuous to how he grew up and how he claimed to live. "Chapter 27" has received some harsh critical reviews most likely because it doesn't explain a tragedy that people want answers to. Others believe it gives a voice to a murderer who doesn't deserve a voice.What people are over-looking is that this is nothing new to movies. And "Chapter 27" is a phenomenally well-written film able to observe what Mark David Chapman observed without judgement. Jared Leto is completely unrecognizable, physically transforming himself into a man that most people cannot understand. There is one scene where he removes his sunglasses and you can see Leto's eyes, other than that he doesn't look or sound like any actor you have seen before.