Crime, Movies, Television

Standard Of Review: Documentary 'Amanda Knox' Raises More Questions Than Answers

The film is an easy watch, but I just wish that it contained a bit more substance.

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Amanda Knox

Amanda Knox

I am a running-time snob. I often complain that a work of entertainment is too long (for example, I am the world’s biggest Mr. Robot advocate, but even I will admit that a few episodes this past season could have been trimmed). It is more infrequent that I critique a movie or a show for being too short. But brevity is exactly the problem with the new Netflix documentary Amanda Knox (this review will contain contain spoilers about the documentary and Knox’s legal case, but given that this was a well-covered, real-life event, I do not have much sympathy).

Amanda Knox, unsurprisingly, tells the story of Amanda Knox, a then-college-aged American who was studying abroad in Perugia, Italy in 2007, when she was arrested by the Italian authorities for the brutal murder of her flatmate Meredith Kercher, a British exchange student. Knox claimed that at the time of the murder, she was with her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, but the prosecution became suspicious of her due to her seemingly emotionless behavior at the news of Kercher’s death. After an interrogation, Knox admitted that she was in the house when Kercher was killed, contradicting her earlier story. Further, Knox’s DNA appeared on the knife that stabbed Kercher. Knox and Sollecito were initially found guilty but the convictions were later overturned, particularly in light of massive errors in the forensic investigation.

The documentary focuses on four principal interviewees: Knox, Sollecito, prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, and then-Daily Mail journalist Nick Pisa (I am not going to focus on Sollecito because I found him to be by far the least interesting of the group).

Mignini explains how he loves detective stories, and thus used his amateur detective skills to put the pieces together that ultimately led to Knox’s and Sollecito’s arrest. But Mignini left me with more questions than answers. Based on Mignini’s explanation of how he led the investigation of Knox and Kercher’s flat, he appeared to be acting like a hybrid between an American-style prosecutor and a detective. Is that common in Italy? Are there other ways in which the role of a prosecutor in Italy is different than a prosecutor in the United States? Mignini also states that the most damning evidence against Knox was her initial reaction to Kercher’s death; first she nonchalantly kisses Sollecito outside her flat, and then a few days later she enters the flat and has a meltdown. But the documentary does not explain the standard of proof in Italy or whether a prosecutor’s opinion of a suspect’s actions actually has any relevance.

While Mignini plays a large role, and the attorney for co-defendant Rudy Guede also appears onscreen, the documentary is mostly silent regarding Knox’s own defense. How did she go about hiring Italian counsel? Who was that attorney? What strategy did that attorney utilize? Moreover, unlike Making a Murderer or O.J.: Made in America, the film suffers from the fact that there were no cameras in the courtroom. The audience is thus unable to view the tactics that Mignini and Knox’s attorney used during the trial.

The documentary also glosses over other aspects of Italian law. After her original trial and her appellate trial (which exonerated her), Knox was re-tried and was again found guilty. But the film yada-yadas over this third trial. And Amanda Knox spends only a little time on the Italian Supreme Court decision that set her free for good. The film has little interest in explaining the legal standards for each of these courts. Further, one shot of the courtroom includes a large crucifix on the wall, but the film does not delve into the role (if any) of religion in Italian jurisprudence.

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One of the main selling points of the documentary is the presence of Knox herself, who agreed to be interviewed for the film. Indeed, in the beginning of the film, Knox asks the viewers a tantalizing question: is she a wolf in sheep’s clothing, or is she “you”? But while Knox is a perfectly fine narrator about the process, I never really felt like I obtained an understanding of Knox as a person (unlike, say, Robert Durst, on The Jinx). The film also ignores important aspects of Knox’s experience, such as being incarcerated in a Italian prison, or how her relationship with Sollecito evolved over time.

From the initial reaction to Amanda Knox, it is already apparent that Pisa, an unabashed tabloid journalist, is the most controversial aspect of the film. In the film’s most jarring moment, Pisa incredulously dismisses any suggestion that he should have fact-checked the information he printed in his articles, lest he lose the opportunity to break a story to one of his rivals. This is certainly a jarring statement, but I got the sense that Pisa does not really feel that way. He obviously understands that checking facts is important, but chooses not to. Further, it is a little absurd to portray Pisa as face of the entire media. As illustrated by the video of throngs of media outside the courtroom, this was a multinational story covered by journalists around the globe. And  the film has no interest in tackling other important questions about the media coverage of the Knox story, such as how it was covered in the United States compared to in England compared to in Italy, the differences in coverage between the “mainstream” media and the tabloid media, or whether media members have any regrets about the their role in the saga.

I do not think that Amanda Knox necessarily needed to be a multi-part series such as Making a Murderer or O.J.: Made in America. And, at a hair over ninety minutes, the film is an easy watch. But I just wish that the documentary contained a bit more substance.

Harry Graff is a litigation associate at a firm, but he spends days wishing that he was writing about film, television, literature, and pop culture instead of writing briefs. If there is a law-related movie, television show, book, or any other form of media that you would like Harry Graff to discuss, he can be reached at harrygraff19@gmail.com. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.

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