Author's judgement: 3/5
Evil in its pure state, horror in its apparent "normality", the devil in human form as we have often seen him and see him every day, this is the true story of a serial killer who has been charged with over 30 murders that is told in this week's film: Ted Bundy – Criminal charm directed by the newcomer Joe Berlinger. It is a genre of short story, the so-called true crime and legal stories which leads directly, even before the film story, to human nature, in those profound, obscure aspects, to the point of being difficult to understand except with the tools of forensic criminology, psychoanalysis, psychiatry. History, as well as daily news, constantly remind us how much individuals can be capable of exercising physical and psychological wickedness beyond any possible imagination. In fact, it is often said that reality is able to surpass fantasy.
Ted Bundy was one of the most notorious serial killers in the United States during the years between 1974 and 1978. During that time, over 30 young women were found horribly murdered and mutilated. Bundy was 27 years old and behind a complex, difficult family history, and suspicions are directed towards him following an anonymous phone call to the police which, it will later be known, was made by his fiancée who had begun to suspect him . The character has a pleasant appearance, he attends the university where he lures his victims, he studies law and in court he will defend himself by proclaiming his innocence. His case will be among the first in the history of television to assume significant media value and the hearings of his trial will be broadcast live.
This theme could have had better luck in the film: why is the television audience so attracted by stories of wickedness, of heinous crimes, of unheard-of violence? Instead we talk about it, we feel the problematic starting point, but everything remains at the bottom of the narrative structure aimed at "understanding" the character and those who believe in him. In fact, the film dwells for a long time first, partially, with his official girlfriend, then substantially with an old friend of his with whom he will then have a son conceived behind bars and, finally, with his "fans" who will follow his trial claiming his innocence.
The film is complex, it puts into circulation reflections, doubts and fears that are never fully resolved. Moreover, the origin, the nature of the absolute evil that accompanies the history of humanity has never been fully understood and one certainly cannot ask a director, a screenwriter, an actor to resolve questions of this magnitude. What leads a human being to commit such atrocities (it is enough to recall once and for all Nazism and the mass extermination of the Jews)? What does his mind contain, what dark thoughts stir as he raises his hand ready to strike and kill another human being? Psychiatry could simplify by reducing everything to an altered state of mind and diagnosing acute and violent schizophrenia.
Maybe that's not enough. But, in fact, you can't ask for more at the cinema. It is enough to appreciate the intention to remember that the evil one, the devil, is not far away from us. Sometimes he is around the corner, in the unsuspecting neighbor, in the "good person who would never hurt a fly". Ted Bundy was executed in the electric chair in January 1989. Like him, many other serial killers "operated" in the United States: the most famous, still in prison, confessed to over 70 murders. Even that, in genre literature, this type of people are US citizens is still to be understood. In Europe however, as we have written, we had the absolute champion in this sense, Adolf Hitler.
Ted Bundy, however, is an interesting film and the young director has shown that he knows the trade. The actors, Zac Efron and Lily Collins along with solid John Malkovich hold the role very well. Worth the ticket.
