Devil’s Knott

Atom Egoyan – 2013 – USA

I’ve never been a fan of Egoyan’s brittle and lifeless films, and Devil’s Knott feels much more like a true-crime TV-movie than a typical Egoyan film, but nevertheless it is still so aloof and non-challenging that it’s hard to invest yourself in it.  This seems to me a nearly impossible failure considering the fascinating and sobering facts of the notorious West Memphis 3 case, in which three anti-social teenagers were railroaded by frenzied media and cops out for blood after three pre-pubescent boys were brutally murdered in a small Arkansas town.  Possibly because there are many unresolved elements of the ongoing story, Egoyan chooses instead to focus on Pam Hobbs (Reese Witherspoon), the mother of one of the murdered boys, and Ron Lax (Colin Firth), a private investigator working for the defendants.  Both stories are certainly interesting, but it’s hard to escape the feeling throughout the film that these two are being portrayed so heroically because they either cooperated with or helped produce the film.  I’m just speculating on that, but I’m sure that something weird went on here.  In any case, the film is very lightweight and doesn’t offer anything compelling that wasn’t already covered in the superior and thorough Paradise Lost documentary trilogy by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky.