The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst

The Jinx might make amateur sleuths of us all. But judging by this gripping, stranger-than-fiction detective story, Jarecki’s the real thing.

"The Jinx" is an utterly compelling watch. Through the two episodes I've seen, it's chilling, emotional and occasionally morbidly funny and moves at a thrilling pace.

The Jinx does channel that we're-all-on-this-ride-together thrill that hooked so many listeners of last fall's NPR podcast, "Serial," about a murder of a Maryland teen. This may be a high-gloss treatment that utilizes all the tricks of the TV trade, including dramatic re-creations, and a way-over-baked credit sequence, but that sense of unfolding discovery remains.

The Jinx is wickedly entertaining: funny, morbid, and sad, at once exploitative and high-minded, a moral lasagna of questionable aesthetic choices (including reconstructions of ghastly events) and riveting interviews (of Durst, but also of other eccentrics, like his chain-smoking-hot second wife).

The Jinx can be a tad too self-referential at times, and unlike the hot-blooded thrill of the podcast “Serial,” this is a story whose particulars can all be found—albeit presented far less well—on Wikipedia. But it’s absorbing, due to the exhaustive research underpinning it and the hook of Durst’s actual, shiftless presence.

It's possible that, barring a confession, you will come to the end of The Jinx unsatisfied, wondering how it was you spent six unreclaimable hours in the company of a person you have decided is a creep. Either way, it's fascinating as it gets there.

The story so far is compelling, but, as with that true-crime podcast, our judgments will be heavily influenced by how the series plays out and what kind of resolution it provides (or doesn’t).

This documentary, which promises to twist and turn a bit with each new episode, is one of those macabre sagas that once again proves that truth is stranger than fiction. The most haunting part of The Jinx, though, is Durst himself and his ice-cold eyes. They’ll send chills right up your spine.

The beady-eyed Durst is a wily but generous interview subject, but where The Jinx really succeeds is in its fantastic attention to pace and detail, particularly in reenactments that are far and away better than what we usually see on “48 Hours,” et al.

The filmmakers grant Durst his humanity, allowing us to see the charm, and occasional flashes of humor, that animate the man when he sometimes emerges from the fog of good fortune. In the two episodes I’ve seen, The Jinx makes good, sparing use of dramatizing some of the moments Durst describes.

The Jinx is as unnerving as it is engrossing, and that’s exactly as it should be.

Fans of podcast sensation “Serial” and anyone intrigued by a good character-driven murder mystery will want to jump on board HBO’s six-part documentary series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.

Gripping and slightly unnerving, Durst’s impassive demeanor ensures this six-part series will be widely discussed, trumping some artistic choices that, like Durst’s account of events, can easily be second-guessed.

The Jinx continues the tradition of controversial stories too disturbing to invest in but too well-told to dismiss.

Some may criticize Jarecki’s rigidly amoral documentary style, but even if he and co-producer Smerling don’t skew their filmmaking to underscore the guilt of their subjects, the facts, as they say, speak for themselves. When the facts are as extraordinary as they are in The Jinx, it’s impossible not to listen.

Jarecki is an excellent interviewer, making Durst comfortable enough and yet also asking the tough questions. I wish some of the flashier filmmaking aspects of The Jinx weren’t quite so overcooked.

There are undeniably pulpy elements here, from the teasing out of material through multiple episodes to the melodramatic True Detective-esque credits sequence and crime reenactments. So far, it appears the film offers a spectrum of voices, some countering Durst’s.

After a 40-minute trip through the strange life of Robert Durst, we have no idea whether he’s a killer or a survivor.

[Robert Durst's] eagerness to be interviewed by filmmaker Andrew Jarecki ("Capturing the Friedmans") lends the six-part documentary premiering Sunday more creepiness than cachet.