Directed by J.P. Schaefer. With Jared Leto and Lindsay Lohan. 1 hour, 25 mins. Rated R (sexual themes, profanity) Playing at: Ritz at the Bourse.
For Chapter 27, Jared Leto gained 60 pounds to play doughy Mark David Chapman, the deranged figure who killed John Lennon. He needn't have bothered. As Laurence Olivier reportedly said when told Robert De Niro gained that kind of weight for Raging Bull: "My boy, why didn't you just try acting?"
Another pertinent question: What was director J.P. Schaefer thinking? His subjective film, shot entirely from Chapman's delusional perspective, meticulously evokes the assassin's divided self - the voice that tells him to kill, the voice that tells him to leave - never suggesting to us what compelled Chapman, and why he was fixated on the peace-loving Lennon.
