Movie Review : The Devil All The Time (2020)
When someone royally fucks up, the first thing they’ll feel compelled to say is: “At heart, I’m a good person”. I’m sure you’ve heard someone say it. Hell, you might’ve said it yourself. That’s because we might live in a secular society, but still think of ourselves in religious terms. If you’re convinced that it is a good thing, you owe it to yourself to watch Antonio Campos’ adaptation of Donald Ray Pollock’s novel The Devil All The Time. It’ll change that.
While it doesn’t have the raw power of the original material, it packs enough visual nightmares to make you piss blood for a day or two.
Set in tough, hyperviolent mid-century rural Ohio, The Devil All The Time primarily tells the story of Arvin Russell (Tom Holland), a troubled young man who grew up with an even more troubled father (Bill Skarsgard). His life is shaped by forces outside of his will. Mostly things that happened before his birth and a series of shady, opportunistic characters who prey on his kin. A promiscuous preacher (Robert Pattinson), a domineering sheriff (Sebastian Stan) and even worse.
The main theme of The Devil All The Time is being abandoned by God. Religious characters in this film get their asses thoroughly kicked. Even the ones who use Christianity to further their own nefarious goals. It is best embodied by Arvin’s father Willard, who’s increasingly desperate prayers seem to go straight to God’s answering machine. Same goes for preachers Preston Teagardin and Roy Laferty (Harry Melling) who both seek to gain power in faith.
What makes Arvin Russell such a compelling character to root for is that he thinks in terms of right and wrong and not necessarily good and evil. Because of that, Arvin isn’t prey to symbols that control his kin’s life and takes moral decisions without being controlled by institutions. Religion, law, etc. I guess lust is not an institution, but you’ll see it doesn’t control Arvin either. That is because he is impervious to Judeo-Christian values, thanks to his fucked up dad.
Although I really, really loved Donald Ray Pollock’s novel, I thought the movie fell a little bit short of the original work’s ambition. The inclusion of a Big Lebowski-style narrator who ushers the audience too quickly from one scene to another is a problem. I’m sure it was meant to be a solution, but it doesn’t work. What makes Pollock’s novel so frightening is that the scenes a long and lingering. You feel trapped. But you never feel that way in the adaptation.
The casting is absolutely stellar. Tom Holland inexplicably makes his Arvin Russell works. I thought he looked way too soft to play a backwoods badass, but he makes us forget that it’s him sometimes. Seeing the talented Mia Wasikowska again playing a part that was tailor-made for her was great too. Bill Skarsgard, Sebastian Stan, Harry Melling, they all carry the weight of an adaptation that streamlines just a little too much such a complex and horrifying novel.
It might be cliché to say it, but movie adaptations rarely live up to the original material and it’s normal. When you read a novel, the story you play inside your head will always be better than the one played by someone who decides of all the variables for you. Although there are exceptions, The Devil All The Time isn’t one of them. It does a decent job of delivering the facts of the story, but not quite the feeling. It’s good, but it needed to be fucking great.
7.5/10
