Plot: A limited series inspired by the story of how Amanda Knox was wrongfully convicted for the tragic murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, and her 16-year odyssey to set herself free.
Review: Guilty or innocent, few things are as damning as public opinion. With media latching on to every juicy crime story for tabloid fodder, the true crime genre has been chock full of stories, few of which have been as massive as the trial of Amanda Knox. Chronicling her arrest in 2007 for the murder of her roommate in Italy through developments from the last few years, The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox is the first comprehensive look at the criminal investigation and subsequent legal battles. With Knox aboard as producer, the series stars Grace Van Patten as the college student turned media darling whose judgment was passed not only by Italian courts but the entire world. Providing a deeper look at what happened behind closed doors, The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox offers a biased portrait of the events, but with a great deal of perspective and passion that makes for fascinating television.
The series opens with a tense sequence of Amanda Knox (Grace Van Patten), her husband Chris Robinson (Jared Canfield), and her mother Edda Mellas (Sharon Horgan) sneaking into Italy for a secret meeting. Why Knox would be returning to the country where she was viewed as a femme fatale ties directly into the scope of the series, which unfolds across the eight-episode series. The story then shifts to Amanda’s childhood, retold through a fanciful lens inspired by Knox’s favorite film, Amelie. These moments show the young woman as a sweet, naive young woman who also has a bit of a kooky sensibility about her. This off-kilter personality plays into what would eventually make her a prime suspect in the eyes of the Italian police, but also paints her very differently than in previous takes on this story. We soon find Knox having a romance with her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito (Giuseppe De Domenico), when she returns to her home and discovers blood and eventually the body of Meredith Kercher.
The various stupid and ignorant mistakes that Amanda makes, like showering and noticing blood in the bathroom but taking no action, and struggling to advocate for herself due to her limited grasp of the Italian language, allow Giuliano Mignini (Francesco Acquaroli) to pass judgment on the young American despite the lack of concrete physical evidence. The episodes unfold with events in 2007 forward intercut with scenes set in the 2020s as we see the very different phases of Amanda’s life from trial to incarceration to exoneration, all of which exists under the shadow of how the media presents her as everything from “Foxy Knoxy” to a cold-blooded killer. However, it is a human portrait rather than a sensationalized one, giving every episode a firmly grounded perspective balanced with lighter moments that show Knox’s personality. It goes a long way to showing Amanda Knox as an individual rather than a character in a story. Grace Van Patten plays Amanda across three decades of her life, allowing us to follow the transformation she undergoes in her quest to clear her name.
The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox centers on Van Patten’s performance, which is balanced by her prosecutorial foe, played by Francesco Acquaroli. A blend of Michael Shannon and Marlon Brando, Acquaroli avoids playing his investigator as a cliche but provides a whole arc that complements Amanda Knox’s. Sharon Horgan and John Hoogenakker are excellent as Knox’s parents, who are drawn into the legal quagmire of their child’s trials and face her fate in very different ways. Many characters populate this series in both America and Italy, including Anna Van Patten as Amanda’s sister, Deanna, who all play their roles seriously without delving into the melodrama that so many small-screen true crime series devolve into. It also helps that the series pulls no punches when showing Knox’s years in prison, which will haunt many viewers who only know what they have read in magazines and newspapers about that time.
Created by K.J. Steinberg (This Is Us, Gossip Girl) and written with Sam Rubinek (Riverdale), The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox avoids the pitfalls that plagued the 2011 Lifetime film starring Hayden Panettiere as Knox by giving the series a scope that shifts away from Amanda at times to provide us with the perspective and thoughts of other characters. The narrative does not try to force viewers to exonerate or pass judgment on Amanda Knox. No happy ending in real life can undo what Knox and Sollecito went through. Still, by having Amanda Knox on board as a consultant and producer and fellow former pariah Monica Lewinsky as executive producer, the series tries to present the events as best as possible. There is an ambiguity that may frustrate some. Still, director Michael Uppendahl (American Horror Story, Mad Men) keeps the balance of the various intercut periods and narrative flow moving to allow the audience to piece together probable cause, circumstantial evidence, and their conclusions without the spectacle.
Prior attempts to chronicle Amanda Knox’s journey from 2007 to today have condensed three decades into just a couple of hours, removing a lot of details that inform how this event ended the way that it did. As much as Knox’s life was destroyed, The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox makes sure that we also see the repercussions for everyone in her orbit, as well as the murder victim, Meredith Kercher. The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox is a well-made series that skips the “movie of the week” cliches to focus on the bigger picture of how these events happened and, more importantly, why. It is an interesting way to construct a true crime series that may feel overlong to some, but is worth sticking with for the emotional payoff at the end. Like Amanda Knox herself, this series is not designed to provide closure but instead to help us better understand what happened.
The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox premieres on August 20th on Hulu.
Source:
JoBlo.com
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