No Man Of God (Amazon Prime Video)
Starring Elijah Wood, Luke Kirby; Directed by Amber Sealey
Rating: **
Why do they do it? Torture and kill, not once but repeatedly, just for the heck of it? I remember how deeply revolted I was by Lars Von Tiers’ The House That Jack Built in 2018 where we saw a vicious serial killer played with arrogant sadism by Matt Dillon , explain his murders one by one as a work of art.
A film on serial killings may be a work of art(The Silence Of The Lambs was) but the act of killing as a work of art? No way!
No Man Of God is not even halfway as ambitious The House That Jack Built. It is more like a teleplay, a chamber piece, where FBI agent Bill Hagmaier(Elijah Woods) meets notorious serial killer Ted Bundy(Luke Kirby). Over a period of time they strike up an uneasy friendship where I won’t say Bill becomes sympathetic to Bundy. But he does come closer to that depraved sadistic mind than anyone else.
Or so we are told. The mood and mores of the 1980s are filtered and projected with a selective bravado.
While the interactive intimacy between the two men builds up into a strong case for death-row compassion, it does nothing for the audiences’ empathy or patience. Until the end Bundy remains just a cheap cheesy killer with delusions of grandeur that he would do well to keep to himself. Who the hell cares what a mind as sick as Bundy’s thinks?
The problem with this not-worthless (but not worthwhile enough to command our attention) film, is that the killer’s mind remains static in the plot. If Bundy has his reasons for doing what he did his dastardly acts do not diminish in their enormity as the narrative moves forward(please note, I didn’t say progresses) and perhaps that is the moral rectitude which must define any such act of violence as gratuitous as Bundy’s.
But then if Bundy remains what he was at the end of the two hours, what is the purpose of the film? To perhaps make the hero FBI agent Bill Hagmaier a better humanbeing? There are moments when Bill begins to doubt his own integrity,when he feels he may cross over to Bundy’s side, in the way Bill starts looking at strange women at the traffic signal, etc.
However these psychological complexities are never given the kind of room to grow that would make this film more than a one-to-one between a criminal and an investigator. Even the two principal performances didn’t prompt me to sing hosannas. While Elijah Wood’s investigator seems too inhibited by the hazy moral circle that that the plot builds around his character, Luke Kirby’s Ted Bundy’s is all posturing, slouches and snarls. The performance has more bark than bite. The film conveys much less menace than it needed to.
