In 1993, the shocking murder of three young boys rocked the city of West Memphis, Arkansas. The murders were attributed to satanic worship, ...
In 1993, the shocking murder of three young boys rocked the city of West Memphis, Arkansas. The murders were attributed to satanic worship, and three suspects, Damien Echolls, JessieMisskelly Jr., and Jason Baldwin, local teenage boys with an interest in the occult, were quickly tried and convicted. Dubbed the West Memphis Three, aspects of their trial were brought into question, with one of the boys confessions being taken under suspect circumstances, and several pieces of evidence being mishandled and not put forward in the trial at all. Several documentaries, namely the Paradise Lost trilogy and West of Memphis, have been made, declaring the boys innocence, and now Atom Egoyan (Chloe, The Sweet Hereafter) presents us with Devil's Knot, based on the book by Mara Leveritt, a dramatic, but sadly unengaging, retelling of those fateful events.
Egoyan succeeds in capturing the horror of these events, and the injustice and controversy surrounding the trial, as West Memphis was caught up in "satanic panic" and looking for someone to blame for this unspeakable crime. The tension of the opening scenes, as the bodies are discovered, is unbearable, even though we know the tragic outcome. It's once the trials kick in, that the movie becomes a bit of a slog, recounting events as they happened, and becoming more of a docudrama than an actual retelling of events. These scenes are very clinical and staged, robbing these high profile events of any drama. There is the faint sense of a story here, but it is lost fairly quickly, and the movie just becomes a collection of scenes with no real relation to each other. As the movie speeds towards its conclusion, a lot is left up in the air, fading to black with far too many questions to be answered, even though you can make the case that is in keeping with the real life events.
It's when the focus is put on Reese Witherspoon's Pam Hobbs, mother of one of the murdered boys, that the movie captures your interest. Her transformation from pitch fork waving townsperson to a more clear headed individual who sees the madness that seems to be ignored by almost everyone around her is handled perfectly, and some of her later scenes are absolutely heart breaking. Less well served is Colin Firth as investigator Ron Lax. He feels less of a character and more of a plot device, devoid of any character, and seemingly only present as a cooler head amongst all the panic. There is a wealth of talent in supporting roles, including Dan DeHann and Mireille Enos, and Bruce Greenwood, that are sadly underused.
A noble effort, Devil's Knot sadly let down by an exhausting attention to detail that doesn't let much of the drama shine through.
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Egoyan succeeds in capturing the horror of these events, and the injustice and controversy surrounding the trial, as West Memphis was caught up in "satanic panic" and looking for someone to blame for this unspeakable crime. The tension of the opening scenes, as the bodies are discovered, is unbearable, even though we know the tragic outcome. It's once the trials kick in, that the movie becomes a bit of a slog, recounting events as they happened, and becoming more of a docudrama than an actual retelling of events. These scenes are very clinical and staged, robbing these high profile events of any drama. There is the faint sense of a story here, but it is lost fairly quickly, and the movie just becomes a collection of scenes with no real relation to each other. As the movie speeds towards its conclusion, a lot is left up in the air, fading to black with far too many questions to be answered, even though you can make the case that is in keeping with the real life events.
It's when the focus is put on Reese Witherspoon's Pam Hobbs, mother of one of the murdered boys, that the movie captures your interest. Her transformation from pitch fork waving townsperson to a more clear headed individual who sees the madness that seems to be ignored by almost everyone around her is handled perfectly, and some of her later scenes are absolutely heart breaking. Less well served is Colin Firth as investigator Ron Lax. He feels less of a character and more of a plot device, devoid of any character, and seemingly only present as a cooler head amongst all the panic. There is a wealth of talent in supporting roles, including Dan DeHann and Mireille Enos, and Bruce Greenwood, that are sadly underused.
A noble effort, Devil's Knot sadly let down by an exhausting attention to detail that doesn't let much of the drama shine through.
Follow @themoviebit
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