There are three large problems with this movie.
The first is the banal use of the split-screen technique. There is really no benefit to the story, or the viewer, in seeing (a) both a finger pressing an apartment doorbell and an old woman sitting upstairs reacting to it. (b) a newscast being filmed, and as filmed (b) a sequence of ten old ladies looking nervously over their shoulders, instead of just two or three. The movie craves occasions to use the tool it has already decided upon, and strives badly to utilize the gimmick but fails. The split-screen doesn't heighten tension, doesn't usefully complicate the narrative, doesn't offer any shift in viewpoint that is ultimately productive. In short, it doesn't produce any discernible result. Worse still, it's used very timidly for inscrutable, typical reasons. In the end you're not convinced it was used for any deeper reason than some graphic designer convinced the studio it would look "rilly kewl." Stylisitically there's no coherence in the use of the technique. It's all over the place. Some compositions fill the screen Mondrian-like with equally minor scenes. Sometimes the boxes slide across the screen. Sometimes footage is inset inside other footage... all creating discord.
The second problem is the usual Hollywood malarkey concerning the now absolutely dead Freudian idea that a psychotic's breakthrough can only come when he uncovers the secret he's keeping from himself. So the hogwash of hypnotism gets run through the machinery again.
The third is the odd decision to manufacture a completely phony story for the criminal. Utter fiction is allowed in to the script to produce something more typically Hollywood. The script opts for 'familiar' over 'fresh,' while the technique is desperately fighting this choice. Because the movie doesn't agree to study the actual traits of the killer, it both, offends those involved; and ultimately gets at exactly nothing. The stakes of making the story an opportunity to give an actors resume a calculated boost is deeply cynical.
The movie finally gets to a decent idea in the last quarter when space and time become compressed in the interviews and Fonda begins to appear in DeSalvo's memories. This is a much more promising idea, but the movie ends shortly after.
The first is the banal use of the split-screen technique. There is really no benefit to the story, or the viewer, in seeing (a) both a finger pressing an apartment doorbell and an old woman sitting upstairs reacting to it. (b) a newscast being filmed, and as filmed (b) a sequence of ten old ladies looking nervously over their shoulders, instead of just two or three. The movie craves occasions to use the tool it has already decided upon, and strives badly to utilize the gimmick but fails. The split-screen doesn't heighten tension, doesn't usefully complicate the narrative, doesn't offer any shift in viewpoint that is ultimately productive. In short, it doesn't produce any discernible result. Worse still, it's used very timidly for inscrutable, typical reasons. In the end you're not convinced it was used for any deeper reason than some graphic designer convinced the studio it would look "rilly kewl." Stylisitically there's no coherence in the use of the technique. It's all over the place. Some compositions fill the screen Mondrian-like with equally minor scenes. Sometimes the boxes slide across the screen. Sometimes footage is inset inside other footage... all creating discord.
The second problem is the usual Hollywood malarkey concerning the now absolutely dead Freudian idea that a psychotic's breakthrough can only come when he uncovers the secret he's keeping from himself. So the hogwash of hypnotism gets run through the machinery again.
The third is the odd decision to manufacture a completely phony story for the criminal. Utter fiction is allowed in to the script to produce something more typically Hollywood. The script opts for 'familiar' over 'fresh,' while the technique is desperately fighting this choice. Because the movie doesn't agree to study the actual traits of the killer, it both, offends those involved; and ultimately gets at exactly nothing. The stakes of making the story an opportunity to give an actors resume a calculated boost is deeply cynical.
The movie finally gets to a decent idea in the last quarter when space and time become compressed in the interviews and Fonda begins to appear in DeSalvo's memories. This is a much more promising idea, but the movie ends shortly after.