DEVILS KNOT
Starring Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth
Directed Atom Egoyan
When Atom Egoyan has dipped his toe into the mainstream in the past, its typically taken the form of tawdry psychological thrillers such as the recent Where the Truth Lies or Chloe. While hardly successes by any traditional measure, theyve at least offered some intermittent amusement with their stilted eroticism and wayward performances.
While Devils Knot marks yet another misfire for the Canadian auteur, theres no perverse pleasure to be gleaned on this occasion. Instead, theres only bewilderment.
Devils Knot tells the story of the wrongfully convicted West Memphis Three thats already been detailed both exceptionally and exhaustively in four documentaries (including West of Memphis, which is barely out of the rearview). This dramatization seems to exist solely for those fickle viewers adverse to non-fiction films and more inclined to take an interest in true stories if they feature a star like Reese Witherspoon masquerading as a mourning blue collar mother (achieved through a frumpy sweatshirt and somnambulistic bearing).
As a private investigator, Colin Firth is a far more active participant on screen, trying to make sense of how three teenage outcasts came to be accused of the gruesome murders of three young boys. This allows Egoyan to stitch together the particulars of the trial-turned-travesty-of-justice but they fail to cohere into a compelling narrative.
A harrowing story hinging on rampant prejudice and witch hunt-level hysteria has been bled of its combustive emotions and reduced to an inert courtroom drama. In turn, the only outrage here is derived from watching Egoyan continue to squander his considerable talent.
