Film Review: The Killing of John Lennon

Liverpool Daily Post

The Killing of John Lennon, (Cert. 15)
Stars: Jonas Ball, Joe Abbate, Sofia Dubrawsky, Krisha Fairchild
Directed by Andrew Piddington

IT IS best to take an objective attitude towards this film, a drama based on the thoughts of Mark Chapman in the days before he shot John Lennon and the aftermath of his arrest.

Those who feel Lennon’s killer should be denied the media fame he sometimes sought are advised to avoid a film in which Chapman is the central character.

Filmed over three years by British director Andrew Piddington, it uses the recorded words of Chapman – delivered in a monotone voiceover – to explain his actions. In fact, little is explained as Chapman’s thoughts tended to wander and he had various explanations for the shooting.

Shot at the original locations, there is too much of Chapman driving around in a car with his thoughts buzzing away and too little background. Its best moments come in the tension-filled run- up to the murder with Chapman stalking the Dakota building, making friends with a doorman and acting rather peculiarly with a photographer.

We know what is going to happen but when it does, it still comes as a terrible shock. Lennon, however, is a peripheral figure in the story, simply there to act as victim.

Newcomer Jonas Ball gives an exemplary performance as Chapman, but one is left wondering if this is a film we really need. I suspect not.