The Daily Swarm

Hollywood Reporter:

The answers regarding Lennon’s killer are presented in fascinating detail in Jarrett Schaefer’s “Chapter 27,” opening via Peace Arch on Friday in New York and April 4 in L.A. and then expanding to other key markets. For his awards worthy portrayal of Lennon’s killer, Mark David Chapman, Jared Leto (“Fight Club,” “Girl Interrupted,” “Requiem for a Dream”) went the extra mile and actually put on some 60 pounds. Chapman, who’s still in Attica Prison, hasn’t said much over the years about what drove him to murder Lennon, but he did talk about it with crime journalist Jack Jones for the 1992 book “Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman,” on which the film is based.

Written and directed by Schaefer, “Chapter 27” is produced by Alexandra Milchan, Naomi Despres and Robert Salerno. It’s executive produced by Gilbert Alloul, Rick Chad, John Flock, Gary Howsam, Leto and Lewin Webb. Also starring are Lindsay Lohan as Jude, a Beatles fan Chapman meets and is attracted to while he’s killing time waiting to shoot John outside his New York apartment in The Dakota, and Judah Friedlander (“30 Rock,” “Zoolander”) as Paul, a paparazzi who’s also there to shoot John, but with his camera.

E! Online:

Jared Leto stars as fat guy/nut job/John Lennon-killer Mark David Chapman in a movie. Chapter 27, it’s called. It was in Sundance a whole year ago and will finally be released this week to little fanfare and no publicity. Too bad, because he gained 62 pounds for the part, and then shed the weight so quickly that he actually contracted gout. For real. Gout.

AP:

The feature debut from writer-director Jarrett Schaefer is a lethargic, ponderous slog that feels much longer than its brief running time. Schaefer relies too heavily on voiceover to convey Chapman’s inner state, but he provides little insight.