The story of three young boys who were found brutally murdered in a small West Memphis town has been the subject of several books, a powerful documentary and now the ‘based on a true story’ film Devil’s Knot.

In Devil’s Knot our focus is specific to the investigator for the defense, Ron Lax (Colin Firth), and the mother of one of the victims, Pam Hobbs (Reese Witherspoon).

Attributed to Satanism, the murders are quickly pegged on a trio of teenage boys, who have a reputation for fetishizing the occult.

For the private investigator, what begins as a natural desire to see the death penalty avoided soon becomes an obsession with a case that he feels has unjustly framed three innocent teenagers for the most heinous of crimes. Nothing adds up, and all reasonable questions seem to not only stand unanswered, but many also were never asked to begin with.

Pam Hobbs, the mother of 8-year-old Stevie, also has her doubts. As she hears the evidence in the trial that accuses three local teenage boys of her son’s murder, she is less than convinced. Not only are things not adding up in the courtroom, she becomes increasingly doubting of her husband’s behaviour; and his eagerness to see the teenage boys prosecuted leaves her wondering.

The subject matter has now been tackled a number of times, but the tale doesn’t ever get easier to experience. As we are once again taken to the hideous scene of the crime and baffled by the seeming incompetence of everyone from the police to the judiciary charged with seeing justice done, it seems incomprehensible that such a poor trial resulted.

Sadly, Devil’s Knot does not quite deliver as compelling a case as the powerful documentary West Memphis Three before it. It skirts over many of the more concerning elements of the case, and leaves a window open as to who in fact might be guilty.

Firth and Witherspoon make for compelling leads, but their efforts are not supported by a succinct narrative or a clear plot position. In fact, the film fails in a way because it simply offers us nothing new.

If you are going to take on such a well-documented story, sitting on the fence isn’t the best approach. Had the film presented its own case for who the true murderers were, it would have been far stronger. Instead, we are again presented with helpings of a very visual depiction of a heinous crime, and left with no real sense of justice or conclusion.

Directed by: Atom Egoyan
Starring: Colin Firth, Reese Witherspoon
Rating: M
Runtime: 114 mins
Release Date: July 24
Reviewer rating: 2.5/5