Review of Dahmer (2002) by Charles B — 10 Jul 2009

After the screening of "The Hurt Locker" I attended, Kathryn Bigelow noted that it was this low-budget indie film about Jeffrey Dahmer that encouraged her to cast unknown Jeremy Renner as her lead bomb tech. I had seen the film on rental shelves often and, being from Milwaukee, I was at times curious but the marketing made it look like a really bad, exploitive film. In reality, it's just the opposite. It's much more a character study and Renner makes Dahmer a tragic figure, a trait I often felt in interviews.

It's not that Dahmer was a good person, but his gay self-hatred and longing romantic caused him to do terrible things (at least, that's what the film suggests). The violence, when it does come, is tasteful and given that Dahmer practiced cannibalism, boiled his victims down with acid, and performed many other unspeakable acts upon them, it's very retrained but effective nonetheless. We're not asked to embrace Dahmer or to sympathize, but to see this was actually a mentally disturbed individual whose murders went on as long as they did because he was both smart and could project (and probably actually felt) a great deal of compassion.

Renner, of course, is very good at projecting both sides of Dahmer and I can see why Bigelow thought so highly of him. Also, I was amazed at the supporting cast, particularly by unknown Artel Kayàru who plays one of Dahmer's potential lovers, Rodney. His traits highlight the ones Dahmer is capable of, but unable to sustain.