Movie Review: Dahmer

Ahhhhh, the beauty that is True Crime. Really, the province of yellow rags and celebrity gossip, I have to admit to this guilty pleasure. It all started with the book, The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule. Couldn't put it down. Proof that truth can really be more exciting than fiction.
 
And I was a fan.

I found I really did have an affinity for the serial killer. Not to say I wanted to act out their deeds or promote them to some kind of anti-establishment t-shirt. No, I used them for fuel, really, for my own creative writings. There's nothing like scaring the bejabbers out of yourself with such horrific prose, analyzing  it in your head for a few days and then spitting it back out as a tale.
 
It was such a path that lead me to the tale of Dahmer. Trust me, it wasn't like I hadn't already heard about the guy. I even had read two books about him. One, the piece by his father was actually very well written.
 
Dahmer's story is interesting in that he is a minority, not the mainstream profile for a serial killer. He had some traits common to the serial killer...other than the excessive body count...like hurting small animals and severe social isolation. But he was gay. I can only think of that happening three other times in the brief history of serials. Lee Wournos was a woman; Wayne Williams was black; John Wayne Gacy was also gay.
 
Secondly, as I had read more and more, Jeffrey was also surprisingly guilt ridden by the killings. Most killers boasted and wanted attention, but Jeffrey wanted to be caught. He looked as his spree like one would look at a disease, something to cure and rid.
 
Please, understand, I offer no sympathy for the devil. In fact, my readings have proven that these men and women are the reason for capital punishment. Humanity knows of no predators; perhaps this is nature's way of filling that vacuum.
 
Serial killers are a fascinating subject, pure and simple. The mind it takes to kill, repeatedly, with intelligence and cunning is the stuff suspense is made of.
 
And good movies. Most recently, Monster, with which the tale of Lee Wournos was elaborated on, contains, most probably, the most complete performance of a woman in modern history. The Oscar could not do justice to the acting in that motion picture. Charlize Theron brings the horrors this woman committed into perspective. She does create sympathy for this creature and a certain pathos.
 
The reason why I compare this movie to Monster, is because there is something going on I did not expect. I felt sympathy her, for Jeffrey Dahmer. I do not know if that was the intended result of the filmmakers, but it was certainly evident.
 
Now Dahmer is no Monster, as it were. The scope of the movie is wholly different. This movie comes off as one act play, with one major setting--Jeffery's apartment. But as the film unraveled, I went from expecting to be frightened to a remoted curiosity. There's an inherent fright factor in the stories of serial killers (see: Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs), rarely do you expect a dramatic interpretation of the suffering of a young man that motivates him to commit murder.
 
Yes, Jeffrey is the protagonist in this story. You don't want to like him, but here is something in his plight that we can, again remote, relate to. He comes off as so lonely (and a tight performance by Jeremy Renner, all the more human) that he kills to maintain a control over a totally un-extravagant life.
 
It's surprisingly deep and sickeningly rewarding. I felt dirty at my reactions to it, but I cannot deny it's impact.
 
Now, I have mentioned I knew of Jeffrey long before the movie, and there are many inaccuracies in what what happens within the plot of this movie. What people fail to realize is that filmmaking is a medium. That is, a way of perceiving the world. A book has thousands of pages as an option to explain something. A movie has a camera and two hours. I believe that the audience needs to appreciate the fact that sometimes items are discarded for dramatic effects. It's a sad sacrifice but sometimes necessary.
 
So if you are interested in what really happened, this isn't the movie to watch. If you want to see a riveting character development piece, then fine. I really found this to be a bit of a sleeper.