Is Jerry evil?
I loved this movie. I've always been a fan of Ryan Reynolds, and this is by far one of his best performances, seconded only by Buried IMO.
Reynolds takes a truly complex character like Jerry and brings him to life in the most bizarrely soul-crushing way.
The character has so many sides to him. Which begs the question, is Jerry evil?
We know he's a likable guy, and that he wants to be good. He says so himself. At the same time we get several glimpses at the darker, almost uncontrollably evil side of Jerry.
His first two kills are accidents and he certainly feels remorse, especially with Lisa. But think about Fiona's murder. It's an accident, but then he becomes knife happy and slashes away at her ending it with a smile even! When Lisa tries to escape he violently grabs her and throws her back on the bed.
When discussing the kills with his pets, he openly admits that killing Fiona was the first time he's ever really felt alive.
At the end of the film, he kills Alison without hardly a second thought. Only a glimmer of a moral conundrum seeps in. He murders her to save himself and keep her from going to the police.
Not taking his pills can be blamed in part. The movie opens with Jerry having not taken his pills for awhile, but we're led to believe that when he does take them everything is normal, mundane but normal.
In our own society many people who fall into the same category as Jerry are considered twisted, despicable, evil.... Even people who have mental illnesses and take medication for it.
We all have evil thoughts from time to time, but Jerry gives in to them... mostly by accident, but the accidents seem to lead to a much more sinister side of himself that he enjoys, at least while the incident (in this case murder) is taking place.
The bottom line is that Jerry is a murderer. The film, and Reynolds' performance, makes us feel sympathy for him despite his actions.
This movie is very much left open to interpretation. So, I ask, do you feel Jerry was evil or was he just a very sorry, confused individual?