Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy (2011)

I love this movie so much

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

At the beginning, American newscasters briefly comment about the dramatic Amanda Knox murder trial. Anderson Cooper blurts out that Knox is a victim and talks about the "Italian media that was stacked against her." These comments set the tone as the Italian postal police (not the carabinieri or the law enforcement police) arrive at the residence of Amanda Knox in Perugia. On the surface, American Amanda Knox (Hayden Panettiere) was an intelligent and pretty honor roll student. In September 2007, at the age of twenty, she arrived in Perugia, Italy to study languages at the Foreigners' University (Università per Stranieri). With three other young women, she rented an upstairs flat in a countryside house. The other girls were two Italians and British student Meredith Kercher (Amanda Fernando Stevens). While the young women seemed to get along initially, tension brewed between studious Meredith and Amanda over the latter's sexual and hygiene habits. In October, Amanda met Raffaele Sollecito (Paolo Romio), a young Italian man studying computer engineering, and they became lovers almost immediately. Raffaele called her a free spirit: she was sexually promiscuous and smoked weed.On 1 November 2007 Meredith is found brutally murdered in the locked bathroom of the shared house. The investigative police found various people's actions suspicious, especially the flaws in the alibis which both Amanda and Raffaele had provided. When prosecutor Guiliano Mignini (Vincent Riotta) analyzed the crime scene, he immediately recognized that the "break-in" at one of the bedrooms was staged. After a bloodied fingerprint from African (Ivory Coast) Rudy Guede (Djibril Kébé) was found in the bathroom (his DNA was all over the victim's bedroom), he was arrested in Germany. He opted for a quick trial and was found guilty of murder; he received a 30-year prison sentence (that was later reduced). But Amanda and Raffaele apparently knew something that they did not tell. As Amanda especially had contradictions in her version, the police did not believe her. With events turning against Amanda, her parents, Curt (Clive Walton) and Amanda (Marcia Gay Harden), spent their resources and mounted a blistering campaign against prosecutor Mignini and even the Italian legal system. (They later faced criminal charges of slander in absentia.) The first verdict went against Amanda and Raffaele, who received initial sentences of 26 and 25 years, respectively. Then the verdict was overturned on appeal. Loaded with dramatizations and flashbacks, the movie does not always make the case clearly. And some facts may not be accurately presented. Whether Amanda was guilty or not guilty is the viewer's option, although it is almost certain that she was in the house on that fateful November night. Was Amanda culpable? Was she or was she not in Raffaele's apartment on the night of Meredith's murder? Why did she initially lie when she said her boss Patrick Lamumba at Le Chic murdered Meredith? Lumumba's skin was saved when his alibi was later confirmed. This author will pass no judgment based upon a movie, although it is thought-provoking. In general, it appears that – despite some mistakes – the Italian forensics and investigative analyses were exhaustive. Italy is a foreign country, after all, with different laws than we do. Its robust culture and society long predate our own. As the TV movie, made in 2011, does not end the story, several updates to 2014 appear at film's end. Even then, there was a final verdict later (Supreme Court of Cassation, 2015). The final court did not actually clear Amanda, but rather stated that there was not enough evidence to convict her. Mercifully, the case can never go to trial again. Picturesque filming occurred in Rome, not Perugia. There are many fine performances, especially by Hayden Panettiere, Marcia Gay Harden, and Vincent Riotta.

This movie pretends to be a true story but there a 5 things in it that are not only false, they are things could get the screenplay writer sued for libel. To avoid making this a spoiler, I can't go into detail. right now this case is under appeal, and most people who know about the case expect her to be acquitted. What happened was the case that prosecutor Mignini presented was a work of fiction. The reasons why Amanda Knox was convicted are secret, therefore we may never know the true story this movie was based on. The trial scenes were shot inside a real Italian court room, so I guess a deal was made with the producer where we will let you use a courtroom if you agree to insert these 5 things into your movie, and don't ask questions about it. This is too bad because there were many people who appear to have put in a lot of hard work to make this a good movie, and it probably won't ever be shown again because of the controversy. I hope that can re-edit this movie and add some new footage, and turn it into a comedy.

Please, whatever you do, do not use this movie as a means of deciding whether Amanda Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito are guilty or innocent. There are major factual errors in this movie. This movie makes the claim that a store owner identified Amanda as someone who bought bleach the morning after the murder within days of the murder. This simply is not true. That store owner did not claim Amanda was at his store until 10 months later. And he only made the claim when he was paid for an interview. Furthermore, no other evidence was ever produced to support this claim.The movie also definitively portrays Rafaelle as not calling the 112 number until after the postal police are there. Again, that is not true. The investigators reached that decision based on the clock on a nearby parking garage that was established to be about 12 minutes off.This movie plays very fast and loose with the facts. View it as enjoyable lifetime movie fluff if you will, but DO NOT decide Amanda is guilty based on this movie.

Imagine that you are charged with a crime in a foreign country. You are denied a lawyer. You are denied a translator. You are not declared a suspect but you are interrogated as one. You are interrogated by a team of cops meant to break down mafia suspects. You barely speak Italian. You are denied access to your family. You are in shock and you want to help. Your interrogation is not recorded. You are declared a murderer. Your words, which were never recorded, are used against you. There is no tape, there is no video. The cops who declare you a murderer have a big reason to declare so: they said the case was closed. They declared it to the media. The prosecutor announced it to the world...before the murder scene was analyzed by a crime lab. They paraded you through the streets with sirens blaring flashing the victory sign. They posted your photo on the wall as a most wanted criminal next to the worst murderers and criminals known. One person who was charged will be found with an alibi (Lumumba). Two people (Amanda and Raffaele) only have each other as an alibi and their computers are burned so there is no trace of it. One person (Guede) left hair, finger prints, blood, and DNA at the crime scene but it has not been analyzed by a crime lab. No one has identified that sole person who left the evidence at the crime scene and no one seems to care. The case is declared closed. You are placed in solitary confinement and denied your right to a lawyer, contact with your family, or a translator, or to contact your embassy. Next thing you know, you are a witch, a pervert, you have cold eyes, you are without a soul, you are a mastermind criminal, you are the personification of evil, you are the controller of men that you don't know, you are a hater, you are a liar, you are a sex maniac. No one who knows you will corroborate these "facts". There will be no way for you to escape your conviction because those who want you convicted have all the power. They will hide the evidence which your defense lawyers could easily use to get you off. A movie will be made during your trial which will be used to convince people of your guilt. You are screwed and it was great entertainment.... You are an American citizen in a foreign country, you are a child of parents who want to help you. You have no hope because the case has been closed.