Why Amanda Knox’s story still captivates

Watching “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox” in full sent me straight to a viewing of the 2001 French film “Amelie.” I’m sure the Internet searches for the show’s audience at large will head in other directions; hundreds of thousands of webpages dissecting Knox’s trial and questioning her innocence await their curiosity.

If that doesn’t do it for them, there are movies “inspired by” her story, made without her input, and a variety of documentaries. One of the most widely watched, 2016’s “Amanda Knox,” gives equal weight to Knox’s perspective and that of a British tabloid hack who reduced her to a crazy slattern.

As for what Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s comedy has to do with all this, true crime bloodhounds will tell you that “Amelie” was at the heart of Knox’s alibi: On November 1, 2007, she and Raffaele Sollecito watched it during a romantic date at his place, the same night her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, was murdered in the flat she shared with Knox in Italy.

“Twisted Tale” creator KJ Steinberg (“This Is Us”) lends “Amelie” meaning beyond a line of trivia. Stylistic homages to Jeunet’s film are subtle and abundant throughout these eight episodes, particularly in scenes awash in the dreamy scenery and light unique to Perugia.

Grace Van Patten as Amanda Knox in “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox”

A tinge of naïveté and goofiness in Grace Van Patten’s naturalistic portrayal is reminiscent of Audrey Tautou’s bubbly and eccentric character in Jeunet’s film. However, this suggests more about the relative malleability of our persona at the age of 20, when we’re still figuring out who we are and often look to movies for inspiration.

“Amelie” is defined by its namesake character’s sweetness and her mission to bring joy to strangers, but that drive is the result of a life spent in isolation. Recognizing this undercurrent explains why Knox’s confrontation with the seemingly merciless Giuliano Mignini, the prosecutor who did everything in his power to deprive her of her freedom, bookends “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox.”

Like some quirky girl from the movies, she’s seeking an ending where she’s understood and doing her best to understand others. That theme eventually smooths the unjust twists in a case propelled by preconceived notions and a hunger for villainy that boosts ratings and magazine circulations.

Knox filled that role by being easy to malign. She was just a giddy university undergraduate still acclimating to Italian culture when irresponsible coverage of Kercher’s crime transformed her into a sexualized femme fatale.

Be reassured that Knox’s close participation here is an asset. On November 2, 2007, Kercher was found dead in their flat. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed in the neck. Knox and Sollecito alerted police after Knox came home to find the front door open.

Days later, they were arrested, imprisoned and eventually convicted in 2009. Only much later have the circumstances leading to that guilty verdict come to light. The police kept Knox awake for days and coerced her into implicating the man she worked for, bar owner Patrick Lumumba, in Kercher’s murder.

They hit Knox several times, coercing her to sign a written confession in Italian, which she barely understood. She recanted hours later, but authorities pressed the case forward. The document was later ruled inadmissible at trial, but earlier this year, Italy’s highest court upheld Knox’s separate conviction for committing slander against Lumumba.

Francesco Acquaroli and Roberta Mattei in “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox”

The absurdity piled up from there. Mignini (played by Francesco Acquaroli, delivering an excellent and at times terrifying performance) served as both the case’s lead investigator and its prosecutor.

The jury for her joint trial with Sollecito was never sequestered, guaranteeing the barrage of outrageous fallacies surrounding the proceedings tainted their judgment. They served four years in prison until their conviction was overturned on appeal in 2011. Knox quickly returned to the United States, only to be reconvicted along with Sollecito in 2014.

Italy’s Supreme Court ultimately annulled the case against them in 2015. Meanwhile, another man, Rudy Guede, was convicted separately of the murder in 2008 after his DNA was found at the scene and inside Kercher’s body.

He served 13 years of a 16-year sentence and was released in 2021. But while Knox’s character assassination dominated the news, Americans didn’t hear much about Guede. Instead, the American and British public gorged on the sensationalism because that was the supposedly “official” record.

Perhaps the most cogent statement Knox makes about her case’s ongoing allure is at the top of that 2016 documentary, when she says that if she’s guilty, that makes her the ultimate figure to fear because she’s not the obvious suspect. “But on the other hand, if I’m innocent, it means that everyone’s vulnerable,” she concludes. “Either I am a psychopath in sheep’s clothing, or I am you.”

We need your help to stay independent