Tom Holland starrer is a misfiring hiatus in a string of successful originals. Even the brand name of Netflix, Robert Pattinson, and Tom Holland couldn’t save Antonio Campos’s gigantic mess.

There is not a single character in this logical fluster cuck to root for. Antonio Campos was smart when selecting his cast but not so with the script he chose to portray on screen. The film is merely an assembly of tragedies and scenes than anything deep that Campos was hoping to derive. The film could have been so much better if the creators had paid more attention to Donald Ray Pollock’s novel which was a terrific portrayal of interwoven lives that come together to share a spellbinding kaleidoscope of suffering, sins, and tragedy. The film lacks a subliminal connect from the word go which was required for it to become a sensation; Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson are the only positive thing from the entire film who in their own power tried their level best to make something out of a messy story.

There are many disparate characters whose fate is interconnected, and the film introduces each one to us, but it becomes a colossal and monotonous mess when it just takes too long to finally reach some sort of conclusion.

Although Campos does have a strong resume and has done well in his other independent films like “Afterschool”, “Simon Killer”, and “Christine” but his virtuosity is never seen in the film. “The Devil All the Time” remains a horrible nightmare from start to end.

The film’s most engrossing moments come from two extremely talented actresses Mia Wasikowska of “Maps to the Stars” fame and Elza Scanlen (Little Women), but both of them have been criminally underwritten.   

Well, at the end of the film, a general consciousness will tell you that writers Antonio and Pablo Campos were very perplexed on how to treat the story and ultimately decided to play a hunch, a hunch which misfired massively. They did have the passion, but they lacked requisite skill that is essential while treating an omniscient fiction. Editor Sofia Subercaseaux had a difficult job on her hand, making some sense out of some bunch of dark scenes without any logical continuity whatsoever, she did her job, but the quality of the film is still very down. Non-linear elements in the story did nothing about the emotive aspect of the film and just made the film unnecessarily confusing. It is understandable that not every book can be adapted into films, but you don’t need to embark on a venture which you feel will not work, considering Netflix’s name attached to the film, Campos could have very well gone for a tv series in order to treat the story more accurately.

Furthermore, a film is always about intelligent compromise, and a story which has so many characters who have their own story arch should always be a deal-breaker for shorter formats of story-telling. It just doesn’t work. It would have been better if Campos had chosen to make a “Game of Thrones” with the story that he had. Anyways, the film is available to stream on Netflix, and if you are a fan of Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson, you can give it a go, but if you are looking for good gothic fiction, you may choose to sit this one out.

Alessia Martine is a self-professed security expert; she has been making the people aware of the security threats. Her passion is to write about Cybersecurity, cryptography, malware, social engineering, internet, and new media. She writes for Microsoft products at office.com/setup.

Source: https://worlds-directory.com/the-devil-all-the-time-star-studded-darkly-comic-thriller/