One of the worst, most unnecessary films I saw at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival was Atom Egoyan‘s Devil’s Knot starring Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth. The film clumsily tells the story of the three teenaged boys in West Memphis, Arkansas who were convicted of killing three young boys only to later find themselves freed from jail.
Here’s a snippet from my review:
I guess for anyone that doesn’t know anything about the case, or frequently gets their entertainment fill on Lifetime movies this would suffice, but the end result is nothing more than a bad episode of “Law & Order”.
Filled with sideways glances and long ponderous moments of reflection followed by a glass of whiskey, Devil’s Knot is a half-assed poser of a movie. It’s almost as if they couldn’t be bothered to tell the entire story or didn’t want to put in the effort.
Today we learn Image Entertainment had some money to spend, and had they acquired it for release on television it may have made sense, but the goal is to release it second quarter of 2014, which means April-June timeframe. Best of luck to you.
Image Entertainment’s Chief Acquisition Officer, Bill Bromiley is quoted in the release saying, “Reese Witherspoon delivers a stellar, emotional performance, displaying her versatility by transforming herself as a vulnerable mother trying to make sense of her son’s death.”
Considering she spends the majority of her time moping around the house and offering up sideways glances I’m not sure what “performance” Bromiley is talking about. Suffice to say, I didn’t see it and neither did everyone else I spoke to in Toronto that interpreted what they say, pretty much the same way I did.
