How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 2 January 2014
This article is a review of DEVIL'S KNOT.
Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2013. (For more information, click here.)
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“We are under a lot of pressure down here,” Inspector Gary Gitchell (Rex Linn)
Feeling short-changed by DEVIL’S KNOT is the probable response for anyone familiar with ace documentary WEST OF MEMPHIS (2012), produced by Peter Jackson. The latter dissected a double tragedy: The murder of three eight-year-old boys in 1993, and the miscarriage of justice where three teenagers were shown to be wrongly convicted of the crime. A documentary of power and intelligence, it is impossible not to be moved and shocked by what is presented. Props should at least be given to the DEVIL’S KNOT makers for shining a spotlight on such an important case. However, the end result leaves much to be desired.
The opening image is the crime scene in Robin Hood Woods at a place called “Devil’s Den”, in West Memphis, Arkansas. Internal alarm bells go off immediately, warning at a choice in narration. Is this the voice-over from one of the victims, Stevie Branch (Jet Jurgensmeyer)? It states, “No one knows what happened, but me.” Firstly, having a recently deceased in real life speak from beyond the grave is arguably tasteless. Secondly, at least three others were there who knew what happened – his two friends also killed, and at least one perpetrator. Having what appears to be a STAND BY ME-esque initiating monologue smacks of questionable judgement.
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It is May 5th 1993, and two introductions are made:
- Pam Hobbs (Reese Witherspoon) picks up Stevie (her son by an earlier relationship) from school. Anyone unaware of the story will wonder why Pam is focused on. And even having prior knowledge, using a victim’s mother as the entry point reeks of dumbing down. Witherspoon is totally miscast too.
- Private investigator Ron Lax (Colin Firth) is at an auction where an item is bought for $21,000. Is the film highlighting the glaring moneyed divide between the authority figures and the deceased/accused? A redundant scene, in a real life narrative packed with incident and protagonists, wastes precious running time. What was director Atom Egoyan thinking in attempting to tackle the West Memphis Three in only 114 minutes?
Direction is of the bland Ron Howard/Joel Schumaker TV-movie-of-the-week variety. DEVIL’S KNOT escapes a trip straight to DVD release thanks to one of the starriest casts of the year. Supporting Firth and Witherspoon: Dane DeHaan, Stephen Moyer, Amy Ryan, Elias Koteas, Alessandro Nivola, Bruce Greenwood and Mireille Enos. A courtroom drama spanning close to two decades required a forensic patchwork and a conspicuous eye on multiple players. We are given instead a whodunnit coterie of possible suspects and minor misdirection. Concerning just the first court case, and not the subsequent appeals and surrounding context, has the air of being only act one in an unvoiced saga. A few post climax what-happened-next titles are not enough. An intricate, complex court case has not been tackled on a cinematic level. Here was the chance. The equivalent of ZODIAC was required.
Here is an example of modern civilisation shorn of its arguable veneer of integrity and decency, exposing society’s capacity for institutionalised brutality, by the West Memphis Three tragedy. The justice system, organised religion, class, education - all grist for a meaty cinematic experience that fails to fully materialise.
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