Devil's Knot

It's been some time since I've seen a film by Atom Egoyan and this year brings "Devil's Knot", a. Story about the infamous West Memphis Three case in Arkansas in the early 90's.

In the case, three young boys were brutally murdered. Suspicion quickly fell on three young men who were reputed to be devil-worshipers. They were initially convicted of the crimes and after many years and much effort, they were able to be released (although not exonerated). The case was most famously described in a series of documentaries (the Paradise Lost series). I hadn't seen the docs but was curious about the story and what he could do with this.

The film focuses on the events from the murders up to the original convictions. It details a number of errors in judgement, of omission and of commission by the local police force. The leads are Colin Firth as an investigator with doubts about the case and Reese Witherspoon as the mother of one of the boys.

It's a strange film in that it feels somewhat unfinished (because it stops at a point where the story begins to take shape) and superfluous (because of the extensive work about the case in both books and documentaries). My key question in watching it was why chose the material in the first place and I don't think I heard a satisfactory answer to the question, either by the film or in Egoyan's comments after the screening.

Oddly enough, there's a scene of the community searching for the boys that is strongly reminiscent of a similar scene in "Exotica". I don't think the reference is intentional, but it unfortunately reminded me of his earlier and much better films.

Disappointing.