An international murder trial attracts a lot of attention, and it can be quite challenging to find anyone who hasn’t heard enough to form even a slight opinion on complicity and blame. Amanda Knox’s story – an American charged with the murder of her British roommate while studying abroad in Italy – was certainly sensational, with new developments emerging even as recently as this year, eighteen years after the crime itself. While many have made up their minds, The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, executive produced by Knox herself, arrives to offer an elaborate and often surprisingly playful recreation that underlines the confusing chaos of this extreme situation.
This eight-episode series introduces Knox first much more recently as she returns to Italy in an attempt to clear her name, but its focus is mostly on the immediate aftermath of the murder of Meredith Kercher in 2007. Knox (Grace Van Patten) decides to study abroad in Italy and forms a close relationship with her new boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito (Giuseppe De Domenico), entirely unaware that the two of them will become the prime suspects in a murder, portrayed as villains whose monstrous reputations should follow them for the rest of their lives.
This limited series certainly takes an intriguing approach to its subject matter given its factual inspiration, beginning episodes with idyllic narration and a sense of hopefulness. While this show is inarguably sympathetic to Knox, it also offers other perspectives, particularly when Giuliano Mignini (Francesco Acquaroli), the prosecutor intent on proving Knox’s guilt, gets to have his backstory featured and explains why he has devoted his life to the pursuit of justice. It’s an undeniably inviting strategy that lures audiences in to care about all these characters, even if they think they already the facts of the case and how they feel.
Though primarily aimed at an American audience, this show features most of its dialogue in Italian to accurately represent the legal experience of Knox in a foreign country. As Maid did before it, it gets creative with its use of onscreen devices like subtitles, at one point having them simply disappear when Knox can’t keep up anymore with the rapid-fire exchange of a language she thought she knew decently. She’s frequently pushed to speak in Italian while giving statements even though she’s not fluent, and her fervent explanations that certain expressions in English like “see you later” don’t translate literally to Italian fall upon deaf ears. There’s plenty to unpack there alone, and Knox comments on the hectic nature of the Italian legal system, which also presents problems when her mother (Sharon Horgan) is delayed in getting to visit her in prison since they don’t share the same last name.
As this series explores, one of the reasons that Knox’s case has remained active to varying degrees since she was first tried is that Kercher’s family believes her to be guilty. Precious little of the eight hours of this series are spent on the actual relationship that Knox and Kercher had, due in part to the fact that that time pales in comparison to the years Knox spent in prison in Italy and working to get her life back on track since being released. This drama does feel at times a bit too jovial and choreographed, with heightened music increasing in volume whenever the trial becomes more sensational. Knox’s guilty may be in doubt and the Italian legal system on trial, but a twenty-year-old student was still killed, and this doesn’t always feel like a somber tribute to a life cut tragically short.
Morality and sensitivity aside, this series boasts a strong lead in Van Patten, who moderates her performance exceptionally, never allowing Knox to swing as widely as the show’s tone sometimes does. Horgan and John Hoogenakker effectively portray fiercely loyal, entirely devastated parents, but the most memorable supporting performance comes from Acquaroli, who emphasizes Mignini’s fidelity to the letter of the law. While this series does often lean more towards entertainment than biography, its near-total immersion in Italian language and its Italian ensemble does create a vivid and engrossing viewing experience that should shed some new light on a topic that’s already been extensively covered.
Series Rating: 6/10
