Skip to footer

Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth star in 'Devil's Knot' – here's the trailer for the drama

Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth star in the film 'Devil's Knot,' which is based on the case of the West Memphis Three. The film in which Reese Witherspoon stars opens today in limited release.

|
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Reese Witherspoon stars in 'Devil's Knot.'
  • By Kyle Hembree Screen Rant

Here are the facts as they are known: In May of 1993, three young boys were found murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. Subsequently, three local teenagers were tried and convicted for the crime despite faulty and often presumptuous evidence. As they began life sentences, outside sources began to question the West Memphis Three’s guilt – eventually leading to their release from prison in 2011.

Behind these facts lies a story of paranoia, religious panic, knee-jerk judgment, and the unimaginable horror of losing a child. Based on the popular true crime book by Mara Leveritt, the new drama Devil’s Knot spins this tale from the points of view of a mother torn by grief and a private investigator out to uncover what truly happened in West Memphis.

Devil’s Knot stars Reese Witherspoon (Inherent Vice), Colin Firth (The Railway Man), Elias Koteas (The Killing), Dane DeHaan (The Amazing Spider-Man 2), and Kevin Durand (Noah). The film is directed by Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter).

The first trailer for Devil’s Knot shows off what appears to be a well-shot, dramatically intense movie. That said, the film has a major hurdle to leap right out of the gate: What more can it say about a case that has already been so thoroughly documented? After all, the subject of the West Memphis Three has already been given extensive cinematic treatment, most notably via the Paradise Lost trilogy of documentary films.

Additionally, early reviews of Devil’s Knot from the festival circuit have not been especially kind, often describing the film as too measured and prosaic to capture the fear and outrage that boiled over during the case.

Kyle Hembree blogs at Screen Rant.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth star in 'Devil's Knot' – here's the trailer for the drama
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2014/0509/Reese-Witherspoon-Colin-Firth-star-in-Devil-s-Knot-here-s-the-trailer-for-the-drama
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe