‘Devil All the Time’ rarely captivates
You can feel the love that writer-director Antonio Campos has for Donald Ray Pollock’s 2011 novel “The Devil All the Time” flowing through every vein, captured in every frame of his new adaptation.
Available on Netflix, the film tells Pollock’s tale — set largely in his unincorporated hometown of Knockemstiff, in the southcentral part of Ohio — of two generations of folks affected by wars and religion.
The movie boasts a big, notable cast, with Tom Holland (“Spider-man: Far From Home”) starring and Robert Pattinson (“Twilight,” “Tenet”) in one of several key supporting roles.
It even gets a bit of flavor by having Pollock himself serve as the intermittently used narrator.
Despite all it has going for it, however, the Southern Gothic-flavored slice of noir never manages to hook the viewer.
Co-written by Campos’ older brother Paulo, “The Devil All the Time” has the kind of story structure and rhythm that tend to work better on the page than on the screen. Too often, the film feels episodic instead of the complex interwoven tale you hope it will become, as full of flavor as it often is.
“Four hundred or so people lived in Knockemstiff in 1957,” Pollock’s narration informs us early on, “nearly all of them connected by blood through one Godforsaken calamity or another, be it lust or necessity or just plain ignorance.”
Although that’s when we meet Willard Russell (Bill Skarsgard) and his 9-yearold son, Arvin (Michael Banks Repeta), the first episode, if you will, revolves around Willard years earlier. He is returning home after serving overseas in World War II, with psychologically affecting wartime experiences having included encountering a crucified Marine on the field of battle.
Willard meets and marries waitress Charlotte (Haley Bennett), and they have Arvin. When tragedy befalls the family, Arvin, unlike his father, makes a hard turn away from religion. Now a young man, Arvin (Holland), even though he’s grown up — in Coal Creek, W.VA., several hours away from Knockemstiff by car — is with an