Storyline
The movie takes place in the three days leading up to Lennon's murder and is intended to be an exploration of Chapman's psyche, without putting substantial emphasis on the murder. The title "Chapter 27" suggests a continuation of J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, which has 26 chapters, and which Chapman was carrying when he shot Lennon. Chapman was obsessed with the book, to the point
Directors
Writers
Cast
Trailer
Reviews
70
The Hollywood Reporter
High praise to the cast and crew. Jared Leto is mesmeric as the bloated, deranged Chapman. It's a brilliantly measured performance, evincing the tale of a madman through his own awful rhyme and reason.
63
It's a transformative role, but how widely seen it is depends on how strong a stomach one has for wall-to-wall paranoid ravings.
50
The film's 85 minutes drag by painfully slowly, because there's no respite from Chapman's tedious, self-pitying reveries.
40
From what I can tell, the film is generally accurate regarding the events of Dec. 8. But I got as much out of it as I did by looking up Chapman on Wikipedia.
40
There's virtually no context provided here, about Lennon or the Beatles or New York or Chapman himself. To put it another way, the film's entire context IS Chapman.
