I never read the”best selling phenomenon” that this movie was based on. In this case I was really going into the film not knowing too much about the story despite the book being so beloved by many who really wanted to see this movie. It wasn’t really advertised much but from what I saw it looked kind of interesting and looked like a decent drama. Not knowing anything about the book didn’t worry me since I wouldn’t have to worry about changes being made since I knew nothing about the story. 

I’m not sure about the accuracies to the book here but this story was just kind of all over the place. Many of you know that I am not a huge fan of narration and it’s everywhere here and it really gets annoying how she has to essentially spell everything out for the viewer about her backstory leading up to the trial. It’s one of my most hated tropes in a movie unless it’s absolutely necessary or used for comedic purposes. The acting in this movie was fine enough for this sort of story I guess. Daisy Edgar-Jones is going to be a breakout star at some point and even though I didn’t really feel like she was a strong lead here, the character is well written enough to make her likable for the story. She did carry the whole movie though because nobody else in this was really that interesting to be honest. The two guys who she’s attracted to one being a good guy played by Taylor John Smith and the guy who ends up dead played by Harris Dickinson. She really didn’t have chemistry with either of these two so the romance scenes really aren’t very good or well written because of this. I’d even say it sounds kind of robotic at times because it feels like dialogue I’ve heard so many times. There’s also a really forced dialogue scene in the past where she says the title and it was one of the most forced title drops I’ve ever heard. The actual murder trial was alright and was honestly the most interesting part of the story however it didn’t really make up for the rest of the movie feeling like nothing. I’ve actually already forgotten a lot of it because none of the characters were really made memorable enough to really care even when death is involved. I just didn’t really find it to really be an engaging story mainly because of the poor writing but I just found it to be pretty dull for a large portion of the film. I also thought that the ending was really stupid and not well executed at all. It was just an overall forgettable experience to be honest. 

Conclusion: Really don’t have much to say about this one. I’ve already forgotten a lot of it and it just felt very by the numbers and not very interesting. Daisy Edgar-Jones did alright but nobody else really stood out especially character wise. Dumb ending and a forgettable story made this very average and not one I’m going to remember in a few weeks. I’d say this one is worth skipping because there’s better movies to see right now. 

LE