The savage murders of three young children sparks a controversial trial of three teenagers accused of killing the kids as part of a satanic ritual.
Director Atom Egoyan fails to offer much fresh insight in this well-intentioned but oddly uninvolving film.
Slogs dutifully through the least ambiguous take yet on the miscarriage-of-justice that provoked Amy Berg's West of Memphis, among other documentaries.
It is a strangely unsatisfactory affair that doesn't quite work either as a documentary-style reconstruction, a brooding thriller or a courtroom drama.
Maybe it needed a director like David Fincher to capture the deep, dark dread of what happened but in the hands of Atom Egoyan it barely scratches the surface and feels in bad taste.
This is more third rate John Grisham, hardly appropriate given the horrifying nature of these relatively recent, still unsolved murders.
While the director's focus may be clear, the film itself is more frustrating, raising unanswered questions not only about the murders, but also about the efficacy of dramatising them.
How could one of cinema's most distinctive voices be responsible for this anonymous docudrama detailing a story already told at least twice?
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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