[Review] The Devil All The Time(2020) {7/10}

Directed by Antonio Campos from a screenplay co-written with his brother Paulo Campos, based on the novel of the same name by Donald Ray Pollock who also serves as the film's narrator, the film stars Tom Holland (Arvin Eugene Russell), Bill Skarsgård (Willard Russell), Riley Keough (Sandy Henderson), Jason Clarke (Carl Henderson), Sebastian Stan (Sheriff Lee Bodecker), Eliza Scanlen (Lenora Laferty), Haley Bennett (Charlotte Russell) and Robert Pattinson (Reverend Preston Teagardin).

The plot weaves together several families' stories over a decade in two small towns in West Virginia and Ohio. In one family, the son, Willard (Bill Skarsgård), is just back from war in 1957. His mother (Kristin Griffith) made a pact with God to marry him off to a local woman, Helen (Mia Wasikowska), if he came back alive, but Willard has his eye on a waitress he's met (Haley Bennett). He marries the waitress and they have a son, Arvin, but she dies of cancer when the boy is still young, and Willard takes his own life soon after. Arvin (Tom Holland) is sent to live with his grandmother, who has also taken in Helen's daughter, Lenora (Eliza Scanlen), as Helen and her husband, Roy (Harry Melling), have both gone missing. Lenora grows up to be a devout Christian, picked on by local boys and easy prey for an immoral priest. Arvin's family doesn't know yet that Helen and Roy are both dead. Roy's path has intersected with serial killers Carl (Jason Clarke) and Sandy (Riley Keough). The killers get away with murder for years, even though Sandy's brother, Lee (Sebastian Stan), is the local sheriff. Lee knows the only thing that separates him from all the other sinners is that he's the law.

As much as you want to be repelled by the depraved characters and relentless violence, this film manages to keep you curious. Maybe more impressively, The Devil All the Time makes you care for some of the broken souls inhabiting its two map-speck towns. This is no easy feat. The well-known international cast pulls off playing evil while hinting at the weaknesses and trauma fueling their characters' actions, forcing you to grapple with comprehending characters even as they make appalling, morally questionable choices. At well over two hours long, the film could have done this even better by cutting out a couple of the less-developed stories. Director Antonio Campos seems fascinated by the darkest side of human nature, but he has set the film to a blend of period gospel, folk, country, and other music that keeps the mood from feeling as miserable as the stories warrant. Adapted from the novel by Donald Ray Pollock, who narrates the film, Devil is set in the gloomy borderlands between West Virginia and Ohio between 1957 and 1965. This location and between-war period is characterized in the film by financial and spiritual poverty. Still, there are no easy moral lessons here, no heroes, and few characters or themes painted in black and white. It won't be for everyone, but given a chance, Devil could surprise more than a few initially reluctant viewers.

The Devil All The Time is now available on Netflix.