Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy

2011
5.6| 1h27m| en
Details

Based on the events surrounding the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) and Marcia Gay Harden (Academy Award winner for Pollock) star in the Lifetime Original Movie Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy based on the international headline-grabbing story of the now infamous American exchange student accused by Italian authorities of brutally killing her roommate. Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy poses the question of whether Knox (Panettiere), the Seattle honors student accused of murdering her college roommate Meredith Kercher (Amanda Fernando Stevens) in 2007 with her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito (Paolo Romio) and acquaintance Rudy Guede (Djirbi Kebe), actually committed the crime or was herself a victim.

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.
Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System
Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
romanorum1 At the beginning, American newscasters briefly comment about the dramatic Amanda Knox murder trial. Anderson Cooper blurts out that Knox is a victim and talks about the "Italian media that was stacked against her." These comments set the tone as the Italian postal police (not the carabinieri or the law enforcement police) arrive at the residence of Amanda Knox in Perugia. On the surface, American Amanda Knox (Hayden Panettiere) was an intelligent and pretty honor roll student. In September 2007, at the age of twenty, she arrived in Perugia, Italy to study languages at the Foreigners' University (Università per Stranieri). With three other young women, she rented an upstairs flat in a countryside house. The other girls were two Italians and British student Meredith Kercher (Amanda Fernando Stevens). While the young women seemed to get along initially, tension brewed between studious Meredith and Amanda over the latter's sexual and hygiene habits. In October, Amanda met Raffaele Sollecito (Paolo Romio), a young Italian man studying computer engineering, and they became lovers almost immediately. Raffaele called her a free spirit: she was sexually promiscuous and smoked weed.On 1 November 2007 Meredith is found brutally murdered in the locked bathroom of the shared house. The investigative police found various people's actions suspicious, especially the flaws in the alibis which both Amanda and Raffaele had provided. When prosecutor Guiliano Mignini (Vincent Riotta) analyzed the crime scene, he immediately recognized that the "break-in" at one of the bedrooms was staged. After a bloodied fingerprint from African (Ivory Coast) Rudy Guede (Djibril Kébé) was found in the bathroom (his DNA was all over the victim's bedroom), he was arrested in Germany. He opted for a quick trial and was found guilty of murder; he received a 30-year prison sentence (that was later reduced). But Amanda and Raffaele apparently knew something that they did not tell. As Amanda especially had contradictions in her version, the police did not believe her. With events turning against Amanda, her parents, Curt (Clive Walton) and Amanda (Marcia Gay Harden), spent their resources and mounted a blistering campaign against prosecutor Mignini and even the Italian legal system. (They later faced criminal charges of slander in absentia.) The first verdict went against Amanda and Raffaele, who received initial sentences of 26 and 25 years, respectively. Then the verdict was overturned on appeal. Loaded with dramatizations and flashbacks, the movie does not always make the case clearly. And some facts may not be accurately presented. Whether Amanda was guilty or not guilty is the viewer's option, although it is almost certain that she was in the house on that fateful November night. Was Amanda culpable? Was she or was she not in Raffaele's apartment on the night of Meredith's murder? Why did she initially lie when she said her boss Patrick Lamumba at Le Chic murdered Meredith? Lumumba's skin was saved when his alibi was later confirmed. This author will pass no judgment based upon a movie, although it is thought-provoking. In general, it appears that – despite some mistakes – the Italian forensics and investigative analyses were exhaustive. Italy is a foreign country, after all, with different laws than we do. Its robust culture and society long predate our own. As the TV movie, made in 2011, does not end the story, several updates to 2014 appear at film's end. Even then, there was a final verdict later (Supreme Court of Cassation, 2015). The final court did not actually clear Amanda, but rather stated that there was not enough evidence to convict her. Mercifully, the case can never go to trial again. Picturesque filming occurred in Rome, not Perugia. There are many fine performances, especially by Hayden Panettiere, Marcia Gay Harden, and Vincent Riotta.
SnoopyStyle In 2007 Perugia, Italy, Amanda Knox (Hayden Panettiere) and boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito (Paolo Romio) call the police for a possible break-in. Then the body of her roommate Meredith Kercher is found locked in her room. In a long flashback, Amanda is an eager university girl from Seattle who wants to spend a year in Italy. She and Sollecito become prime suspect and eventually convicted for the Kercher murder.I really like the start with the movie getting right into the case. Then the movie goes back to a very bland flashback. Anything significant gleamed from the flashback can easily be included later on in smaller snippets. It's only ten minutes but it sucks out much of the early tension. Generally, this is an acceptable TV movie with Panettiere keeping the character compelling to watch. There is no doubt that this is exploitation TV but it's relatively well-made. It's not trying to take an obvious side but that can also make the movie less dramatic.
LoweyJackson This is the first Lifetime movie I have seen. If the quality of "Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy" is any indication, I have misjudged this oft disparaged enterprise. It is respectable entertainment, written with a decent sense of dramatic tension and cast with a good eye for accurate representation. With the exception of the actors playing Rudy Guede and Patrick Lumumba, much of the cast looks the part and many bring a certain skill to their roles. The use of Italian scenery is a bonus. I like the careful line the movie walks; never spelling out exactly what happened and allowing Amanda to seem both sympathetic and possibly complicit. Marcia Gay Harden nails her scenes as Amanda's fretful mother, and the movie manages to make the Italian police seem reasonable in their suspicion. All in all, this is an entertaining movie that adds another dimension to this over-exposed case.
sarahj630 Please, whatever you do, do not use this movie as a means of deciding whether Amanda Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito are guilty or innocent. There are major factual errors in this movie. This movie makes the claim that a store owner identified Amanda as someone who bought bleach the morning after the murder within days of the murder. This simply is not true. That store owner did not claim Amanda was at his store until 10 months later. And he only made the claim when he was paid for an interview. Furthermore, no other evidence was ever produced to support this claim.The movie also definitively portrays Rafaelle as not calling the 112 number until after the postal police are there. Again, that is not true. The investigators reached that decision based on the clock on a nearby parking garage that was established to be about 12 minutes off.This movie plays very fast and loose with the facts. View it as enjoyable lifetime movie fluff if you will, but DO NOT decide Amanda is guilty based on this movie.

Similar Movies to Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy