Movie Review - Devil's Knot

Devil's Knot (2014)

Starring Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth, Alessandro Nivola, James Hamrick, Seth Meriwether, Kris Higgins, Dane DeHaan, Mireille Enos, Bruce Greenwood, and Amy Ryan

Directed by Atom Egoyan

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

On May 5, 1993, three young boys went missing in West Memphis, Arkansas, after riding their bikes one evening.  A few days later, their bodies were found naked and bound in a small river.  Nearly a month later, three teens were arrested for the crime after the police force and the town in general found the youths' love for heavy metal and penchant for learning the Wiccan religion to be red flags.  This is the true story behind Devil's Knot, a flick by Atom Egoyan that I found engaging, though a bit too "surface" to really have much of an impact.

Reese Witherspoon as the mother of one of the murdered boys is solid, bringing the requisite amount of emotion to her character (and actually probably faring a little better than even her Oscar-nominated work in Wild which I felt was a tad overrated).  As the heart of the movie, she pulls the viewer in, although her character's constant doubts concerning the guilt of the three teens plays much too obvious.  There is reason for doubt which I won't delve into here, but because of the time constraints of the movie, once the film shifts to the trial of the three teens, things feel rushed and forced.

This whole true saga has apparently been played out in three well-regarded documentaries which I can only assume allow for a little more thoroughness.  That said, Devil's Knot is better than the disappointing reviews it received and it certainly piqued my interest in this case as a whole which definitely isn't a bad thing.

The RyMickey Rating:  C