Surprisingly incoherent and boring

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

I had loosely heard of the West Memphis Three for years, but only now do I understand the full story. I'd say that Atom Egoyan is the proper director, since he specializes in grim topics (a school bus crash, the Armenian Genocide, etc). The preacher's claim that satanic music caused the defendants to commit the murders sounds like the typical stuff that we hear from religious nuts. As for the movie's focus on Stevie Branch's family as opposed to all three families, it was most likely because they cast Reese Witherspoon as the mother.The movie ends by noting what happened in the years after the trial ended. What's most intriguing is that the man who came into Bojangles's and was never seen again. What secrets do all the people in West Memphis hide? Whatever the case, this sounds like one horrifying event. "Devil's Knot" is not a great movie, but I recommend it. Also starring Colin Firth, Mireille Enos, Alessandro Nivola and Bruce Greenwood.

The cast list in uncanny in this film. It would be an alright murder/mystery/court drama if the majority of people following the actual case didn't know most of the facts by now. It's a very very complex case, I've watched and read everything there is available, and I'm almost certain in my mind I know who the real killer is. It's a tragic, awful story, It does contain some upsetting scenes from the offset but again, if familiar with the case you'd have seen the real photos and film footage. Worth a watch, but misses a billion things out that are needed to understand it. Reece Witherspoon was fantastic as Pam Hobbs,

If you like your drama/thriller to be stricken of big emotions and presenting "facts" to you, you will like this. But even without having seen the (supposedly and very likely) better documentary on the three kids that went to trial (yes this is based on a true story, if you haven't already checked that fact out), I am missing something here, even with all the acting talent involved.The smallest roles still get a recognizable face for many people to see (the issue/real-life event has drawn much controversy and still is being discussed by many), which is a nice thing. But just drawing by numbers/events happening is not helping the movie much. It could've used a bit more real emotion, a bit more hindsight into motivation of some "characters".

Like most films of this kind, it is a film based on a true story which happened in Arkansas in 1993. I am English and until watching this film, I had never heard of this story. However, some, if not many, might regard this right up there for notoriety with crimes put to movies such as Ted Bundy and others in the pipeline such as Madeleine McCann and Amanda Knox-Meredith Kercher.This was a complicated story-line to absorb without knowing the story first and I took the chance to research it a little afterwards. Certainly the film focuses a great deal on Colin Firth as Ron Lax and Reese Witherspoon as Pamela Hobbs in the leading roles but it shows little light (perhaps as in the Knox-Kercher case which is still fresh in our minds) that the Arkansas wanted 'closure' and quickly and they set out fabricating a case against the three guys which only serves to show the sheer ineptitude of American justice or of any civilised country for that matter.No real acting is required by Colin Firth, he just plays the part while Reese Witherspoon does step up as the emotional Mum grieving her lost Son. The background to the parenting of the three lost boys is not explained in this film.I find it incredible that the film did not throw more light on the apparent satanic cult which was prevalent in that area at that particular time and which, had that been investigated and questions asked of those who were involved, just as in the McCann case in Portugal from 2007, there is the possibility that the crimes committed could be solved in a professional manner rather than left for people to comment and judge by social media in the present climate following release of the new evidence and the ultimate release of the three convicts in 2011.I cannot say I enjoyed this film. It is definitely not a film to enjoy but I wonder whether the film could have carried a more subtle focus for a more connecting audience. 20 years on, I sense the film was made for financial reasons but who are the beneficiaries?