{"id":10679,"date":"2014-04-30T07:29:12","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T13:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=10679"},"modified":"2014-04-30T07:29:12","modified_gmt":"2014-04-30T13:29:12","slug":"the-devils-knot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=10679","title":{"rendered":"The Devil\u2019s Knot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you\u2019re unfamiliar with the West Memphis 3, or the Robin Hood Hills Murders, or the Paradise Lost documentaries that gave both national attention, here\u2019s a quick (spoiler alert) rundown: in West Memphis Arkansas in 1994, three impoverished, teenage, Goth-kids (Damian Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jesses Misskelly) were convicted of the murder of three younger boys (Steve Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers) in an alleged Satanic ritual. The flimsy evidence, the seemingly unfair public opinion of a Bible belt town, and all the devil-cult nonsense, led to a national outcry of unprecedented proportions. Documentaries were filmed, books were published, and a gallery of young misfits turned celebrities became involved, including Eddie Vedder, Johnny Depp, and Dixie Chick, Natalie Maines. The WM3 were finally released from prison an few years ago, and though theories abound, the identity of the killers remains a mystery.<\/p>\n

On May 9th<\/sup>\u00a0the feature film The Devil\u2019s Knot<\/em>, the first live-action dramatization about the case, will be hitting theaters. How the Lifetime channel didn\u2019t churn out a mini-series on the case in the mid-90s, I\u2019ll never know, but rest assured The Devil\u2019s Knot is of about the same quality that a Lifetime special would have been.\u00a0 Yes, this movie is unfortunately a dull, lifeless, bore of a motion picture with only a few instances of exception. How do you possibly make a murder-mystery involving ostracized proto-emo-kids, angry mobs of hicks, and mass satanic-hysteria all played out within the 90s version of the Salem Witch Trials, boring<\/i>? Somehow director Atom Egoyan pulls it off, though he does get a few things right.<\/p>\n

The casting of Reese Witherspoon in the main role as grieving Mother, Pamela Hobbs (Steve Branch\u2019s Mom) was a pretty a good choice as Witherspoon revives her Walk the Line southern draw, in what is easily the best performance in the movie. As well played as Pamela Hobbs is, it is weird that the film focuses on such a bland player in the drama when we could have followed the far more interesting journey of the three trailer-park misfits locked away from society for almost two decades. I guess it\u2019s because Pamela has the only thing resembling a character arc in the movie, as she grows from outraged evangelical to sympathetic skeptic in regards to the conviction of the teens.<\/p>\n

As far as the other actors, we get decent performances by James Hamrick as Damian Echols, Matt Letscher as Jason\u2019s hippie lawyer, and Colin Firth as a skeptical investigator. Outside of these three plus Witherspoon, the acting ranges from uninteresting to awful. Mainly we just have a bunch of B-movie types and their best efforts at country bumpkin-hood. They feel like actors, wearing mullet wigs, reading lines with bad southern accents. Perhaps the most embarrassing example is Kevin Durand as mentally disturbed adopted father of victim Christopher\/one time suspect, John Mark Byers. If you thought the fanning Southern stereotype was painful, just imagine some mental illness cliches thrown in.<\/p>\n

Once you get passed an inexplicably unnecessary scene in which soon-to-be investigator of the case Ron Lax, played by Firth, purchases items at an expensive auction. With no further pay off to the plot, the first act of The Devil\u2019s Knot