Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy (2011)

It is a performances centric movie

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The ongoing saga of Amanda Knox is fascinating and terrifying and unbelievable in the way only a true life story can be. The movie does a good balanced job of putting together the series of events without leaning too much to one side or the other, though personally after watching it I felt quite convinced of her innocence. There was no motive. The evidence against them is so flimsy and quite ridiculous. Hayden acts quite neutrally, letting you decide for yourself about her behavior. Marcia is alright as the worried mother. Nice on location filming and feel. Italy looks quite charming here even though Perugia is not the most picturesque town in Tuscany. How this could have happened in Italy is just shocking. Such a tragedy for all esp Amanda and Raffaele. Hope they get out soon.

Of all "true stories" I've ever seen, this is by far the worst ever, this film is beyond belief, how come the research is so poor and superficial ?This film fails at being true,it's inconsistent and poorly researched, if you know something about Mario Spezi and Amanda Knox, then you also know that Giuliano Mignini lacks all ability for common sense and can never seem to provide ANY UNALTERED evidence.I came across this Amanda's case while reading a book called " the monster of Florence" an amazing chronicle of mediocrity and corruption during one of the most well know cases of serial murders in Italy.Giuliano Magnini, the prosecutor fabricated evidence, played with it, invented a orgy/drugs/sex/blood sect, (sound familiar?) sent a respected reporter to jail, tapped phones.... was even given a conviction and jail time ... and guess what, due to the system in Italy he can still be a prosecutor and worst, can do the same all over again !He landed Amanda's case and with it is trying to create a smoke curtain to erase his past, how unfortunate this young lady was, to fall victim to this monster, to get a mentally unstable man as her prosecutor, a man that will do and lie shamelessly to make his point, a man that even refused to accept other man's innocence because it contradicted his case.The real criminal is Giuliano Mignini, a monster that in the USA will be locked for life for what he has done, yes ... he is the one prosecuting Amanda.Do yourselves a favor, if you like true crime, read The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario SpeziEDIT : - Well, we all know better now, Amanda is free, a mistake of the justice system in Italy, admitted by them, the evidence was all fabricated or non existing, no DNA just a crazy prosecutor and a lot of crazy people around him. This films hould be removed, burned and re made.

This movie promotes several gross distortions which CBS News Crimesider, for one, has identified. Example: in one scene Amanda knew too much prior to her interrogation, such as how her friend Amanda had died. CBS CrimeSider calls this one of the five biggest lies in the film. And yes, it was not in the trial either.Why was Amanda's interrogation not recorded? Why did the prosecution's forensic team not testify in the trial about any crime scene cleanup? Why did the police, while testing, destroy the hard-drives of the computer which Amanda and Raffaele said they were using that night? Why are so many other facts misreported in newspapers and TV? The movie does not answer any of those questions truthfully, or even raise them. It is mysterious. It seems to be a commercial game. Or maybe they are just "giving Amanda and Raffaele a bad time." In this movie, a blonde Italian-American Hollywood woman acts out a screenplay to portray a red-haired Scottish-American honor student from Seattle as if she were a bratty, suspicious and brazen character. Someone has friends in low places.

Hayden Panettiere (Amanda Knox) turns in a brilliant performance which makes this worth watching. Also notable is Vincent Riotta (Guiliano Mignini) as the chief investigator and prosecuting attorney.The movie comes across as fairly impartial, yet with all of the evidence against Knox I became fairly convinced of her guilt after watching this. Prior to this I had assumed she may be innocent.The portrayal of the investigation is well done and I think it covers all the aspects of the case. However this movie falls down in it's rushed courtroom trial. It is here that so many questions go unanswered. For example, during the investigation, one of Knox's roommates informed Mignini that Amanda had told her that Kercher's throat had been cut. Knox could not have known this from the murder scene where she only had a glance of the body which was covered in a blanket; only the killer (or one of the killers) would have known that. This key testimony is never brought out by the prosecution in the trial.Overall, this is a decent TV movie that will get you up to speed about many of the details surrounding this real life crime drama. But If you're already well informed about this international case, you'll most likely find this film shallow and not worth your time.