Tag: Dane DeHaan

The Staircase (2022) s01e08 – America’s Sweetheart or: Time Over Time

“The Staircase” finishes with some highs and lows. It’s got Odessa Young’s best acting in the series and some truly phenomenal work from Toni Collette. Young’s gets to be less problematic than Collette’s, as show creator, episode director, and credited writer Antonio Campos gives Collette a hackneyed final scene. It should be series-best work from Sophie Turner, but it’s not. She’s just okay, which is better than poor Rosemarie DeWitt. DeWitt sat around the whole show with nothing until now, and here she gets a bad wig and flat characterization.

It also ought to be Juliette Binoche’s best episode. It’s not. The show spent the latter half of the episodes setting Binoche up to be some kind of protagonist, only to make her another rube. “The Staircase” treats the audience as rubes; might as well treat its subjects the same way.

The episode does not have three or four possible reenactments of Colin Firth killing Collette, though it heavily builds toward the “truth” at the end. Except it turns out it showed its take a long time ago and then spent six or seven episodes saying it didn’t. There’s only one red herring, which the opening scene establishes, and then waiting the whole episode to see if it’s relevant.

There’s a lot with the kids, only not when it’s important. The episode splits between 2011, when Firth gets out of prison for a retrial, then 2017, when Firth’s giving his Alford plea to resolve that retrial. There’s nothing in between because it would give away the ending. Or at least make the conclusion less of a “surprise.”

Some of the best material in the episode—outside Collette’s final day or two (her white-collar business suspense story’s much more compelling, thanks to Collette, than anything else in “Staircase”)—is Young and Turner finally having their big sister moment.

Sure, they’ve been putting a pin in it for ten plus years, but it’s the closest thing to pay-off. Campos narratively cheaps out on everything else, including Patrick Schwarzenegger’s internal collapse as Firth no longer loves him the most and shuns him, in fact, in favor of previous screw-up Dane DeHaan.

Unfortunately, Campos does a terrible job directing Young and Turner’s scene—maybe his worst work in the episode, which is saying a lot.

Michael Stuhlbarg is around for the courtroom scenes. We find out he’s a rube, too, but it wouldn’t matter because he’s an, at best, amoral lawyer. Tim Guinee might not even get any lines.

But the real kicker to “The Staircase,” after the ending they lifted from “Daredevil,” is the reality. I intentionally didn’t look up the case, but the real guy is not a vaguely debonair, Southern gentleman on the spectrum Colin Firth type… he’s got the style of a used car salesman, and his vibe appears to be Kramer impersonating.

Changes the “based on a true story” thing, even as the episode reveals just how much of the show has been pure, exploitative supposition on Campos’s part.

Even before that Googling, however, Firth’s performance takes a real hit. He doesn’t land any of his scenes this episode, which makes sense because they’re waiting for the big reveal, but still.

Just like I’d worried from the start, it’s an outstanding Collette performance in an otherwise deficient production.

They haven’t created the awards she deserves for believably laughing at America’s Sweethearts.

The Staircase (2022) s01e07 – Seek and Ye Shall

Okay, so Toni Collette’s work subplot and the bat infestation in the attic have gone unaddressed to this point because they figure into the eventual motive. One of the reasons I didn’t have any interest in “The Staircase” was Collette playing the victim; it meant all her acting would be for naught. Almost to the end of the series, watching her go through the entire arc—I’m sure the final episode will have a “but what really happened was” sequence with Tim Curry narrating (or at least it should)—I was right. It’s a shitty, exploited part. Might get her an Emmy, hope it gets her an Emmy, but it’s a bad part.

Speaking of bad parts, the show does a last-minute reprieve on Parker Posey. There’s a red herring investigation from an innocence project, led by a good Deja Dee, but it’s clear it’s a red herring, so there’s only so much. She interviews Posey about corruption in the DA’s office and the “independent” investigation agency. We find out Posey only got into the prosecution racket after defending too many abusive men. It doesn’t address Posey being a bigot, but it does give her character more depth than… well, almost any other character on the show.

This episode’s main plot involves Juliette Binoche’s latest attempt to clear Firth’s name. The owl thing went nowhere and was just a fun way to burn an episode. She accidentally (or mysteriously) gets emailed an autopsy where the victim has the same wounds as Collette had ten years earlier and does a fake interview with cop Cory Scott Allen. It’s a good episode for Allen, who was barely in the first one but is one of the better performances. It leads to Binoche discovering Firth had affairs with lots of dudes while married to Collette, which somehow escaped her notice from the documentary she edited, including when she rewatches the raw footage of it.

It’s never been addressed before, so it seems late, and it makes Binoche’s character weaker, but then there’s no actual dramatic weight to it because the 2017 scenes—six years later—establish she’s still with Firth, so it wasn’t a big deal, after all. The show’s subtitle could be: “It Wasn’t a Big Deal, After All.”

There’s not much with the kids. In the 2017 scenes, Michael Stuhlbarg low-key gives Firth shit about his kids abandoning him. In 2011, Sophie Turner is now divorced and sad. Odessa Young is content, but Turner doesn’t believe it. There’s the strong implication Young’s never come out to any of her family. She goes to Germany to see her real mom’s place of death, visiting an again excellent Trini Alvarado, then hearing the whole story about Firth beating her as a kid from former babysitter Monika Gossmann. The last time Gossmann was on “Staircase,” it characterized her as an opportunistic liar. This time she’s a truth sayer. Whatever.

The real kick of the scene is it means Turner never told Young all the shit she found out about Firth before Collette died.

Boys Dale DeHaan and Patrick Schwarzenegger only come back for the finale montage, which is hilariously bad and made me feel better about crap-mouthing Antonio Campos’s direction. Campos is real, real bad.

I feel like “Staircase” can’t do only one more “did he or didn’t he” sequence for its final episode next time, and two would be underselling it, so maybe three?

Hopefully, it’ll get Collette (and Firth, though he’s not particularly good this episode due to material) better parts.

The Staircase (2022) s01e06 – Red in Tooth and Claw

If someone wanted to take the time—and I’m not suggesting it—analyzing “The Staircase” ’s moving thesis about subject Michael Peterson (Colin Firth in his future Emmy-winning performance, not undeservedly) as the series progresses might be interesting. This episode’s where the show wants viewers to feel bad for ever thinking Firth could’ve killed Toni Collette, even as it continues to reveal his petty, malicious parenting style, particularly to his adopted daughters. Just because Firth’s an asshole doesn’t make him a murderer; also, we spent four episodes trying real hard to convince you not to trust him.

This episode might be the first where no one calls Firth a liar, though son Dale DeHaan does talk about his untrustworthy nature. He and Patrick Schwarzenegger are having a chat in flashback about Firth cheating on first mom Trini Alvarado (who was delightful and isn’t back) with Collette, then hitting Alvarado up for money ever since. We also find out he wanted to give away one of the adopted daughters for having panic attacks.

Of course, since the show’s now through Juliette Binoche’s intrepid documentary editor turned freedom fighter’s perspective, Firth’s a tragic hero. It’s tonally all over the place; the show missed an opportunity to style Binoche after Joan of Arc, as she gives up her own life to save Firth’s while his family’s off doing their things. Lots of reveals in the various family visits to Firth in prison, with that part of the story taking place just after he’s lost his third appeal.

And it turns out Michael Stuhlbarg, in a competent but utterly phoned-in performance (it’s also the writing), wasn’t willing to do a lot of old-age makeup, so I think part of his beard gets grayer. Not sure he’s committed enough for an Emmy.

The main plot is Binoche and neighbor Joel McKinnon Miller coming up with the most likely, although most absurd sounding, explanation for Collette’s death. It’s a “stranger than fiction” solution and reasonably well-executed, but once they introduce the idea, it’s obvious it will pan out. Moreover, the close-to-present material—Firth about to plead manslaughter and get out on time served in 2017—heavily implies it.

Though, given it’s “The Staircase,” I suppose it could be another red herring. I’m not sure how they’re going to get another two episodes out of the story. I guess I could Google, but no.

The episode’s script credit is Emily Kaczmarek, who co-wrote one of the better previous episodes, so I’m guessing it’s her co-writer. Leigh Janiak directs. At least it’s not Antonio Campos. The most amusing manipulation bit this episode, other than the entire 2017 framing, is how the show wants to demonize Schwarzenegger and DeHaan simultaneously to juxtapose redemptions, but it’s set five years apart. DeHaan used to be a cheater but got his act together after dad Firth went to prison. Schwarzenegger… used to be a more functional alcoholic than after his dad went to prison and is now struggling.

Collette gets a slightly demonizing flashback subplot about being shitty to sister Rosemarie DeWitt on Thanksgiving. It’s notable primarily because it’s the only time the show’s been disparaging of Collette’s character, but also because I’d forgotten DeWitt was even on the show, she’s so immaterial to it. It’d be nice if prestige shows cared about the finished product as much as the casting announcements.

The Staircase (2022) s01e05 – The Beating Heart

So, the present action of “The Staircase”—minus Colin Firth flashing back to being a kid with a shitty dad so he could grow into a shitty dad himself—starts in fall 2001 and goes to 2017. This episode begins in 2004 when Firth’s character has been in prison for six months. Meaning the trial took more than a year. The show did a terrible job with the passage of time on it; it’s possibly the worst thing the show’s done, and it’s had some lows.

Amusingly, the kids get together in this episode and talk about the awkward passage of time; how it hasn’t been so long. Sophie Turner once again has to acknowledge neither Patrick Schwarzenegger nor Dane DeHaan care that Toni Collette is dead; the real question is, are Firth and sons sociopaths or just narcissists. If it were a better show, I’d say the time acknowledgment was intentional.

It is not a better show.

Though this episode’s definitely one of the stronger ones, again with a script credit to Craig Shilowich, whose episodes have been much better than show creator Antonio Campos. Who also doesn’t direct (he did the previous episodes); instead, it’s Leigh Janiak. So maybe less Campos means better “Staircase.”

Besides the kids selling off the house to pay for Firth’s appeals, the documentarians are the significant subplot. Producer Frank Feys wants the documentary to accurately represent the trial from the jury’s perspective; editor Juliette Binoche (who’s having her letter-writing friendship with Firth now) and director Vincent Vermignon want to emphasize Firth’s possible innocence. As a result, there are numerous pointless scenes about it, setting up Feys as an asshole.

Not sure a show entirely based on manipulative storytelling should get meta about manipulative storytelling.

Firth in prison is the main “present-day” plot. He’s in somewhat constant danger and more sympathetic than ever, since he’s got Neo-Nazi meth heads out to kill him. He also confirms he voted for Gore (meaning he’s not racist), which they could’ve established earlier.

Speaking of elections and manipulative storytelling, the episode reveals Firth lost his mayoral election in a landslide, making the first episode’s implication the establishment framed him because he was pushing them out a little much. Never look back, I guess.

In that vein, Toni Collette’s flashbacks are all about Firth being a piece of shit to Turner and nothing about the bats. They have a dinner party scene where he’s a controlling prick, but more interesting, it introduces friends who never appear again.

It’s scary this episode’s so much better than usual. It’s also got the least Michael Stuhlbarg; correlation doesn’t mean causation, but… it’s got the least Stuhlbarg.

Probably Firth’s best acting in the series. He’s outstanding.

And DeHaan finally gets some material, and he’s not very good; not sure why I was expecting him to be any good. But, then again, the material’s wanting.

Whatever.

The Staircase (2022) s01e04 – Common Sense

The episode begins in the near present with Colin Firth and presumably new wife Juliette Binoche headed off to court. “Staircase” isn’t ready to tell us what Firth’s up to in 2017, so the documentarians take Binoche aside for an interview on this momentous day. Throughout the episode, her monologuing for the interview about justice, fate, and the whole damn thing relevantly accompany various scenes, usually to good effect.

I’m about to trash this episode, but outside the profoundly deceptive plotting, the script’s probably the series’s strongest (credited to Emily Kaczmarek and Craig Shilowich).

The episode’s the trial episode, where we discover every single red herring the show’s been dangling about the case is bupkis. At best, it’s a fantastic example of what reasonable doubt means. Except there’s not much best to it.

It’s also the episode where Michael Stuhlbarg is clearly bad casting. He’s not bad. But he’s just doing a Ron Silver in Reversal of Fortune bit. Or a Dennis Boutsikaris in a Ron Silver part. The show’s already got a bunch of workhorse actors who never get to flex outside the lines—Tim Guinee, for example, though Parker Posey’s bigot isn’t any deeper—and Stuhlbarg’s just one too many. He’s never anywhere near bad; he’s just entirely pointless.

He does get to participate in the episode’s “misogyny’s okay if you think the lady’s bad” moment, which is just another disappointment for the list.

There’s very little Toni Collette this episode; the bat problem’s unresolved (Firth’s still not interested), and then she’s got a scene telling step-son Dale Dehaan he’s a screw-up. Dehaan’s yet another disappointment. Not bad, but I wasn’t expecting Patrick Schwarzenegger to act loops around him. “Staircase” isn’t paying off for its supporting cast like I’d assumed. They’re just in it for the prestige value, not because their parts need acting.

HBO gonna HBO, I guess. But, in this case, it’s even more appropriate it’s HBO Max because they’re not getting anything.

Collette and Firth do get a long take acting marathon to get through; Dog Day it ain’t, but they’re able to do it. Wish they were in a better project together.

Also in the background is Odessa Young getting more suspicious of dad Firth and Firth giving her every reason to keep getting suspicious and everyone else pretending he’s not. Eventually, her sister sister Sophie Turner starts down the suspicion path, but it might just be because she’s biphobic. Still, it lets Turner show a little more personality. Finally.

Then the final reveal is another humdinger of “you’ve been hiding this detail for the halfway point to manipulate.” It’d be nice for one of these shows to have confidence in their actual dramatic writing and not just their Shyamalan-lite twist reveals.

The show still hasn’t Westworlded, so I guess I should be happy.

It is, however, the most sympathetic Firth’s ever been on the show. Outside when he’s bullying and gaslighting.

The Staircase (2022) s01e02 – Chiroptera

So the person who looks the most like Rosemarie DeWitt but can’t be Rosemarie DeWitt is Sophie Turner. I then thought Maria Dizzia was Rosemarie DeWitt, but no, also not Rosemarie DeWitt. This episode of “The Staircase” has opening titles, which the first episode did not, and they’re a who’s who of actors I hadn’t recognized. At least, you know, Rosemarie DeWitt (she’s got blonde hair, sorry).

Also, apparently, Trini Alvarado’s going to be in the show. I think I know who she’s playing in this episode, but I also could be wrong. I’ll find out next time, which seems to be the theme.

DeWitt and Dizzia play Toni Collette’s sisters, who district attorneys Cullen Moss and Parker Posey pretty quickly convince was murdered. By husband Colin Firth, who says things like, “we’ve got to keep everyone’s story straight,” and totally innocent stuff along those lines. They’re not in the episode much because they’re avoiding him, obviously, as Moss tries to shave off family member support. It’s not hard; he and Posey are going to release Collette’s autopsy photos (they’re public domain, nothing to be done about it) and give wary family members the heads up. In this episode, they’re going after daughter Olivia DeJonge, who’s Collette’s biological daughter. The show still hasn’t laid out whatever Brady Bunch plus adopting orphans situation is going on, but DeJonge’s getting suspicious and sick of step-brother Patrick Schwarzenegger’s weak excuses for Firth’s exceptionally suspicious story.

DeWitt gets the really big “eureka” moment at the end, though.

This episode drops another giant truth bomb—Firth’s bisexual and having an affair (which he lies to everyone about after the murder) with some guy we haven’t met yet. He leaves it up to brother Tim Guinee to tell his kids he’s gay, raising the “is he guilty or just socially awkward” question. Complicating matters… did Collette know he was bi? He says, yes, and she was fine with it, while everyone else is kind of like, we’re North Carolina white Republicans, no way she was fine with it. When Posey’s pressing people, no one argues with her assessment: Collette would’ve been mortified. So Firth might be the bad guy, but he’s being vilified for bigot reasons.

And the evidence he smashed Collette’s head into a wall over and over, which defense attorney Michael Stuhlbarg’s team can only explain if Collette took a tumble down the stairs and slipped and slid in her blood for a long time. It’s an exceptionally rough sequence, punctuated by the team acknowledging they left out a bunch of other wounds she couldn’t have gotten except from someone attacking her.

Firth’s also being really suspicious with defense attorney Stuhlbarg, who shares a lot of knowing looks with his team. Even more alarming is when the French documentarians who come to town to tell his story can’t get him not to act incredibly guilty in interviews.

Collette—in the flashbacks, obviously—gets a lot more to do this episode and is excellent. Firth’s entirely suspicious now (and sometimes for the wrong reasons), which seems like it will limit his potential. DeJonge’s pretty good as the current canary in the coal mine, but the episode heavily implies her siblings are starting to question Firth too. Again, not for great reasons.

“Staircase” is compelling (manipulatively—I wonder how the show would play if they laid it out start to finish instead of the time jumps for effect) and well-acted.

The Staircase (2022) s01e01 – 911

I don't know anything about the actual "Staircase" case. My wife offered to tell me, and I said I'll wait until after the show; the only information I did get was the parents at the center of the story—Colin Firth and Toni Collette—adopted orphaned neighbor kids, which doesn't seem to matter yet. This episode quickly introduces the family—two parents, five kids, no pets—in an Ordinary People-esque montage where we find out son Dane DeHaan has a troubled history they don't talk about, and daughter Olivia DeJonge is jealous of at least one of her (presumably adoptive) siblings.

The episode—and presumably the series—uses a fractured narrative device to reveal various things about the case and the family, including how 9/11 will figure into the story. While the episode starts with old man makeup Firth putting on a tie nearer the present (2017), the main action occurs in fall 2001. Firth and Collette are sending youngest daughter Odessa Young off to college (here's where DeJonge's jealous), then later—after multiple flash aheads—Collette hurts herself at their empty nesters' party. Instead of being worried about her at the hospital, Firth mansplains 9/11 to her.

Because it's based on a true story, "The Staircase" is about whether Firth killed Collette one night in December 2001 or if she really did just get drunk and fall down a treacherous staircase in their Durham, North Carolina home. Shockingly good Patrick Schwarzenegger gets home from a Christmas party to find the cops all over and Firth freaking out. Schwarzenegger immediately believes Firth's story, though the cops are already talking about how Collette'd been long dead before Firth's 911 call (hence the episode title), where he says she's still alive.

The episode will then be Firth acting exceptionally mysterious and guilty, even before the episode reveals he's having an affair, even before we find out he lied in a mayoral campaign about getting a Purple Heart in Vietnam. There's the additional problem Firth's playing a Southern white guy and is immediately believable as a wife-killer. Hell, his lawyer brother Tim Guinee seems like he could've killed his wife, ditto district attorney with a vendetta (writer Firth is nasty to the cops in his newspaper column) Cullen Moss, ditto Firth's own defense attorney Michael Stuhlbarg, who's a Yankee transplant.

But Firth's excellent. Collette's really good too, but she doesn't get anywhere near as much, which is why I was really hoping she wouldn't be the victim. Instead, it's all about Firth straddling awkward and murderous.

The supporting cast is all good, with Parker Posey coming in at the end to knock it out of the park as a member of the D.A.'s team. Guinee's rote but okay; he's mostly just there for exposition dumps about how it's got to be a witch-hunt and to introduce Stuhlbarg to the plot.

The direction from Antonio Campos is fine. The draw's the large cast, who seem like they'll all eventually get more to do as the series progresses.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014, Marc Webb)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is bereft of good ideas. It’s also bereft of good music–Hans Zimmmer’s bland “superhero” score rattles the brain, bowdlerizing what might be better scenes and effect sequences. It’s impossible to know, because there’s never a single moment of music without ludicrous bombast. Who knows how it’d have played if the superhero action attempted emotional impact.

The film opens in flashback. Campbell Scott, playing Spider-Man’s dad, has an action sequence. It sets up lead Andrew Garfield’s arc for the movie. It’s about him trying to find out what happened to his parents. Except when it’s not. Second-billed Emma Stone has this arc about being broken up with Garfield. But, while it does make Garfield a little mopier than usual, it doesn’t really play into any of his arc.

Only it turns out there is no arc for Garfield because nothing interesting happened to his parents. Screenwriters Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Jeff Pinkner–wow, it took three writers to produce such an awful turd of a script–anyway, they build up a big reveal and it’s nothing. They write this exaggerated scene between Garfield and aunt Sally Field where she’s hiding the truth from him and it’s going to devastate him and then it’s nothing. The screenwriters have no idea how to do narrative distance.

Neither does director Webb. Worse, Webb treats Stone like an annoyance. She already doesn’t have a part except to make out with Garfield, smile, and meet supporting cast members for a moment. And when she does have a scene, Webb ignores her performance. You spend the movie trying to remember if or why you like the character and why Garfield likes her and get nothing from the film itself. Who cares if they’re broken up? Not even the characters care.

I suppose Stone’s not bad. She just has a crap part. Garfield’s not bad either. He’s just got a crap part. But Dale DeHaan and Jamie Foxx both have crap parts and manage to be bad. With Foxx, it’s not his fault. They had no idea what to do with him, practically muting him by the end. And they’d already given him the inglorious origin of being bitten by mutant electric eels. He becomes an electric eel man. Just one who can’t be electric underwater, even though the eels got him underwater.

DeHaan’s terrible. Webb’s direction of him is terrible. The writing is terrible. For a while it seems like they’re actually going to generate rapport between Garfield and DeHaan as childhood friends reunited but no. The movie’s too busy jumping between terrible subplots. DeHaan and Foxx are tied together because of evil biomedical capitalist Colm Feore. It’s stupid how much time Feore gets. Even stupider is how much time his sidekick Louis Cancelmi gets. Anything to keep Spider-Man away from Stone.

Because nothing in Garfield’s family plot has to do with Stone. They’re completely separate. He compartmentalizes, even though he apparently follows her once a day as Spider-Man, combination protection and adoration.

Once the movie gets around to the idea of teaming up Stone and Garfield to solve problems, which seems like a good idea, it’s time for the movie to end and for everyone to fall into their parts. Except then the ending takes forever. It’s exhausting. And the music is terrible. And nothing good ever happens. Not in the story, but in the narrative decisions. Amazing Spider-Man 2 is amazing because its best is unfulfilled mediocre. Nothing’s going right with this movie.

And the composite effects–Spider-Man swinging around New York City–usually look awful, like the CG lighting on the Spider-Man model is wrong. The Spider-Man scenes, when he’s not in a weak fight scene, are grating. Bad music, bad CG composite, charmless direction. Webb manages one actual great shot in the movie and cuts away too soon. Pietro Scalia and Webb like to cut a lot. Enough there are times when it’s clear Webb didn’t have coverage.

That one good shot is of Stone, naturally. It’s this brief moment where Amazing Spider-Man 2 connects the emotion of the story with the emotion of the filmmaking. Webb, Scalia, and cinematographer Dan Mindel manage this one sincere thing. I don’t even think Zimmer’s music screws it up.

Then it’s over. And Stone gets nothing, Garfield gets busy to get nothing, DeHaan gets green, and Foxx gets blue. Oh, and Sally Field gets an arc about having to go back to work to pay for Garfield’s college, even though Garfield is apparently not going to college during the movie.

Amazing Spider-Man 2 is bad. Kurtzman, Orci, and Pinker’s script is the worst thing about it. Shame Webb didn’t do anything to alleviate its defects. The returning principals–Garfield, Stone, and Field–deserved better.

Oh, and Chris Cooper is awful in his uncredited cameo. Just dreadful.

Devil’s Knot (2013, Atom Egoyan)

There are plenty of things one simply cannot do in two hours; if Devil's Knot is any indication, one cannot try to tell the story of the trial of the West Memphis Three in two hours. Paul Harris Boardman and Scott Derrickson's script seems to do quite a bit well–for the first third of the film, the horrific nature of the crimes has the film sympathizing with the police officers (Robert Baker in particular), only to later reveal incompetence and corruption on these characters' parts.

Then, once the script's obviously manipulative nature becomes clear, it's hard to take Knot seriously. The deception makes little sense, since the film's written for people familiar with the case (as there's no explanation why Damien Echols isn't executed at the end).

As for second-billed Reese Witherspoon, who plays a grieving mother looking for the truth, her arc's incompetently handled. At least Colin Firth doesn't have an arc or character development. It may very well be historically accurate, but it's far from dramatic.

There are some excellent performances. Kevin Durand and Alessandro Nivola are both good as suspicious fathers. Amy Ryan has a nice scene. Firth isn't bad. Witherspoon eventually gets a little better–but it's too little too late. Much of the supporting cast and some of the principals are weak. Especially James Hamrick as Echols.

Mychael Danna's score is manipulative and derivative. Director Egoyan does an insincere job. It's tepid, vaguely incompetent and Oscar-desperate.

Its compelling nature has nothing to do with the filmmaking.

1/4★

CREDITS

Directed by Atom Egoyan; screenplay by Paul Harris Boardman and Scott Derrickson, based on the book by Mara Leveritt; director of photography, Paul Sarossy; edited by Susan Shipton; music by Mychael Danna; production designer, Phillip Barker; produced by Elizabeth Fowler, Richard Saperstein, Clark Peterson, Christopher Woodrow and Boardman; released by Image Entertainment.

Starring Colin Firth (Ron Lax), Reese Witherspoon (Pam Hobbs), Dane DeHaan (Chris Morgan), Mireille Enos (Vicki Hutcheson), Bruce Greenwood (Judge David Burnett), Elias Koteas (Jerry Driver), Stephen Moyer (John Fogleman), Alessandro Nivola (Terry Hobbs), Amy Ryan (Margaret Lax), Robert Baker (Det. Bryn Ridge), Kevin Durand (John Mark Byers), Michael Gladis (Dan Stidham), James Hamrick (Damien Echols), Martin Henderson (Brent Davis), Kristopher Higgins (Jessie Misskelley Jr.), Brian Howe (Detective McDonough), Matt Letscher (Paul Ford), Seth Meriwether (Jason Baldwin), Rex Linn (Inspector Gary Gitchell), Kristoffer Polaha (Val Price) and Collette Wolfe (Glori Shettles).

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