No Man of God review by Bobby Blakey
.jpeg)
While most noted for his time as a hobbit in the Lord of the Rings series, Elijah Wood has been around for a long time. I have enjoyed a lot of the interesting roles he has been taking on over the last few years and always eager to see what he does next. His latest, No Man of God co-stars Luke Kirby and is based on actual transcripts of interviews between FBI analyst Bill Hagmaier and the incarcerated Ted Bundy. Could this film bring a new light to the mind of a serial killer or will it leave more questions than answers?
No Man of God follows Ted Bundy who was sentenced to death by electrocution in 1980. In the years that followed, he agreed to disclose the details of his crimes, but only to one man. During the early days of the agency’s criminal profiling unit, FBI analyst Bill Hagmaier met with the incarcerated Ted Bundy in the hopes of understanding the psychology of the serial killer and providing closure for the victim’s families. As Hagmaier delves into Bundy’s dark and twisted mind, a strange and complicated relationship develops that neither man expected.
I love anything based on real live events or situations and throw in a serial killer and I am all in. I wasn’t really sure what to expect with this one going in, but knew I was very intrigued in the direction it was going. While it is a slow build dialogue driven movie I found it to be pretty interesting and worked. This is an actors movie and relies solely on the performance of its leads to make it work and both Wood and Kirby deliver.
For anyone hoping to get into the actual kills or crime solving aspects you will be sadly let down.
This is strictly about their discussions and connecting leading up to Bundy’s execution. Watching it evolve from a lack of trust, to what seemed like a close friendship into something more angry had me enthralled right from the beginning. Wood carries the biggest weight of the film dealing with both Bundy and the outside world wanting to end it
all. There is a great payoff moment that built up through their discussions where Wood gives a brilliant visual performance that is painful and beautiful all at once.
Much like the real Bundy, Kirby is engaging and likable as Bundy while still always giving off a sense of evil and something just not being right. This film works as a great companion to the underrated Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Wicked and Vile film starring Zac Efron as Bundy. While that one focused on the entire span of his life and crimes with a bit of lightness to it, this one deals with the gap in the 10 years it jumps near the end. One has nothing to do with the other, but for me personally just works well together.
I applaud this direction as it isn’t an exciting film in anyway, but still manages to engage and take you on a journey insdie the mind of both the killer and the profiler in a unique way.
Check out No Man of God available now on Blu-ray and DVD from RLJE Films.