Devil's Knot
Image Entertainment | Release Date: May 9, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
12
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Entertainment WeeklyAdam MarkovitzMay 7, 2014
The movie doesn’t grab you emotionally, but director Atom Egoyan (Exotica) teases apart the case’s details with grim fascination. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedMay 7, 2014
The case is revisited with painstaking detail, and a riveting picture emerges once again about misunderstood outsiders. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeOct 1, 2013
Far from being overkill, the well-conceived drama featuring A-listers Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth in key roles, will bring this infuriating tale of injustice to many mainstream moviegoers for the first time. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzMay 9, 2014
There are too many major characters and too many points of emphasis. As elegantly directed as it sometimes is, it feels disjointed, scattered. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 8, 2014
While the film is not nearly as evocative as Egoyan's 1997 masterpiece "The Sweet Hereafter" (also about children who died tragically), it is still an intrinsically fascinating story. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJan 24, 2014
Well-intentioned but emotionally straitjacketed. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMay 10, 2014
It’s not a bad film, exactly, but it’s a jumbled, uncertain one, and it never quite makes a compelling case for itself. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMay 10, 2014
It’s a epic tragedy, and summing it up in under two hours does nobody justice. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniMay 9, 2014
The writer-director has the talent to dig deep and lay bare the assumptions behind our idea of justice and our notions of right and wrong. In The Devil's Knot, he settles for an encyclopedic, if skin-deep, presentation. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 8, 2014
Despite the fine performance by Witherspoon and a number of the supporting players, Devil’s Knot comes across as a cinematic, slightly dramatized Cliffs Notes edition of a story that’s been told often, and almost always more effectively, in other formats. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen HoldenMay 8, 2014
In the opening images of Devil’s Knot, the camera sets a menacing, Hitchcockian mood by stealthily creeping into the woods where the murders took place. But the movie settles into being a police procedural with the tone of a superior episode of “Law & Order: SVU.” Read full review
50
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlMay 6, 2014
Egoyan musters some of the power he brought to The Sweet Hereafter, another lost-children tale, but little of the lyric beauty or sense of a community coming unglued. Read full review
50
The DissolveNoel MurrayMay 6, 2014
What’s most frustrating about Devil’s Knot—especially for longtime Egoyan fans—is how generic the movie becomes every time it folds another wrinkle into the case. Read full review
48
Film.comCalum MarshSep 14, 2013
Rather than thrilling, the courtroom sequences seem only enervating, nudging us toward a quiet outrage. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonJun 10, 2014
There’s too much story to cram into one film, with the result that the three surly teenagers themselves – who would have made far more compelling central characters – are pushed to the side. And with their own legal team surely keeping a close watch, Egoyan and his scriptwriters are unable to point fingers in any meaningful way. A missed opportunity. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenMay 8, 2014
Egoyan, who has never shied away from the lurid aspects of lost innocence, takes a measured approach that successfully avoids sensationalism. But the film's restraint verges on blankness. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanMay 8, 2014
This stilted crime drama from Atom Egoyan feels misguided from the start. He’s attempting to fictionalize a true story that has already been told better, several times over. Read full review
40
VarietyScott FoundasSep 14, 2013
Devil’s Knot only occasionally feels weightier than a high-end Lifetime original or “Law & Order” episode. Read full review
38
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeMay 8, 2014
Colin Firth plays a real-life investigator whom the script renders as noble as Atticus Finch. Reese Witherspoon does haunting work as a victim’s mom. But the stately pace and the faultless art direction add to the impression that truth was not only stranger, but more dramatic. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMay 6, 2014
Atom Egoyan is a much better director when he drops the art-film fanciness and wrestles directly with his inner voyeuristic weirdo. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 8, 2014
A wan gloss on a horrific nightmare. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubBen KenigsbergMay 7, 2014
Devil’s Knot is an inert exercise, visually and dramatically on par with "Drew Peterson: Untouchable." Read full review
25
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 14, 2013
Devil's Knot lacks potency or a compelling narrative reason why anyone remotely familiar with the case needs to be watching it. Read full review
20
The GuardianCatherine ShoardSep 14, 2013
It reduces a complex and extraordinary case to soap. It makes you care less, for all its heavy-breathing and cheapo coaxing. Read full review
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