Review: Dahmer (2002)

This is a Resurfaced review written in 2002 or earlier. For more information, please visit this link: Resurfaced Reviews.

Dahmer

Rating

Director

David Jacobson

Screenplay

David Jacobson

Length

1h 41m

Starring

Jeremy Renner, Bruce Davison, Artel Great, Matt Newton, Dion Basco, Kate Williamson, Christina Payano, Tom’ya Bowden, Sean Blakemore

MPAA Rating

Buy/Rent Movie

Poster

Review

A serial killer for our generation, Jeffrey Dahmer was a despised and feared person whose own life was fraught with challenges and emotional setbacks. “Dahmer” is a character study of this unusual person inspired by his life story.

Jeremy Renner, much like the person he portrayed, put on the skin of his character and virtually lived the role. As Jeffrey, we watch him parade through life as a young man by way of flashbacks. We watch him pickup Asian and African American straight and gay men and he does it with such a creepy artistry that it’s as if we’re watching a dirty old man preying on a young girl. His disarming charm explains much of his ability to encourage men to fall into his trap.

Shortly after the film’s opening, we watch Jeffrey shop for men while they’re looking for clothes at a department store. He spies one Asian youth perusing shoes and approaches him, offering to purchase a pair of shoes for him if he will simply return to his apartment to pose for some pictures. Upon arrival, he proceeds to offer the boy a drug-laced drink, who unwittingly agrees. Soon, the boy passes out on the couch where Jeff proceeds to take pictures of him as well as perform some unusual maneuvers best left experienced on the screen.

After a late night escape, Jeffrey ends up on the defensive, but still in control of his surroundings. He continues his prowl by picking up a flashy, black, knife store operator who believes Jeff wants to have a simple relationship with him. During these scenes, we watch the great majority of flashbacks where we finally see where Jeffrey came from. Through several arguments with his father Lionel (Bruce Davison), we discover what kind of childhood Jeffrey had lived. His bizarre perversions are apparent in his late teens as we watch his escapades with a high school jock and a stolen department store mannequin.

For the most part, “Dahmer” isn’t a graphically disturbing film. Only two scenes of violent situations show themselves and only one of these is intense with a blood content that would make Dracula drool. For the most part, we’re allowed to develop an emotional attachment to this severely misunderstood killer. Sure, most of his murderous rampages are kept away from the screen, but the director and screenwriter, David Jacobson, has intended this film to be more like a diary than a tell-all biography. To this extent, he keeps many facts off the screen and merely focuses on Jeffrey’s emotional collapse and familial back-story, items we rarely paid attention to during his trial.

Renner, as mentioned before, slips into his character’s skin with relative skill. He’s a haunting rendition of the original and it’s not hard to find him sympathetic and intriguing. Renner is powerfully challenging and emotionally engaging, his tender portrayal is Oscar-worthy, but will be forgotten by awards time. Davison, likewise, is powerful as the lad’s father, a spiteful man whose separation from his wife has left him obviously scarred.

One of the most difficult parts about the film is its story-telling techniques. Perhaps lodged between obscurity and power, we are forced to pay attention to time changes as we cruise through Jeffrey’s life in flashbacks, simply by noticing the subtle costume changes. This is the most cumbersome part of the film. Other editing techniques employed correctly would have made these transitions easier, but we soon understand the dynamic and make the changes more easily, however it’s a difficult task considering the subject matter and the use of the same actor in scenes 10-15 years apart.

Overall, “Dahmer” is an touching, impassioned movie that can easily make the audience uncomfortable as they put themselves into Jeffrey’s position and see what difficult decisions he had to make and decide ourselves whether we would do the same thing. It is one of the most emotionally challenging movies released in recent years and for some audiences, the movie will be boring and unengaging while others will find a decidedly pensive film.