“It seemed to his son that his father fought the devil all the time.”
Fans and the casual movie goer would be drawn by the ensemble cast of the psychological thriller (based on the midwestern gothic novel by Donald Ray Pollock) which is made up of many of Hollywood’s rising actors. Fan favorites Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson lead the pack and while the film is far from their roles in big blockbuster movies (including of course, Sebastian Stan) these actors bring their dramatic acting chops to this dark thriller.
Joining them are Bill Skarsgard, Jason Clarke, Eliza Scanlen, Haley Bennet, Mia Wasikowska and Riley Keough.
Running at over two hours the film is a bit like “Love Actually” because of its ensemble cast, whose characters have stories that overlap with each other. Of course, (The Devil…) replaces Christmas, warmth, love and giddy feelings with tragedy, dread and doom.
Aside from the absence of love and romance, ‘The Devil All The Time” takes place in a span of years, instead of one holiday. These number of years, spread out to two generations to be exact.
The film opens with Bill Skarsgard’s character Willard who fought in World War II, he witnessed horrors in the war, which he brought home with him. This trauma somehow gets mixed with his faith, like there should be “sacrifice” for a “prayer to be answered.” Willard passes his trauma, confusion and anger on to his son Arvin, who will be played by Tom Holland.
In “The Devil All The Time” you see characters who take advantage of the faith and religion of others, in order to enact their own selfish desires. Such as Robert Pattinson’s Pastor/Preacher character- who loves the attention and love he is getting from his congregation and who may be also getting a little extra on the side.
Pattison and Holland deliver impressive performances and fans would be happy to know that they have more than just their superhero card to play on.
A lot of the comments about the film is that it would have been better as a mini series and I see where they are coming from, since there is a large of number of characters who have their own different arcs and stories that go across the film, you don’t really get to know or understand why these characters are doing what they are doing. You don’t get to see behind their psyche or motivations (except for Bill Skarsgard’s Willard) and a mini series would be able to explore on these character’s intensions.
Like I mentioned in our vlog review, the film is two hours of tragedy happening after tragedy but you can’t look away! So I would caution you to prepare yourself, steel yourself for the gloom, doom and violence in the film. Oh and speaking of violence, the film is actually rated R18 for sex scenes aside from the violence.
Arvin (Tom Holland) is not a bad person but bad things keep happening to people that he loves and he takes it upon himself to do bad things back, something that he also picked up from his damaged father.
They say that the “sins of the father, are the sins of the son” but the bible teaches us something else that- “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son.” -and that in the end, we will be judged by our own actions.
I guess in a way, especially now, we are all in a way “fighting with the devil all the time” and its just up to us, if we will let him win.
“The Devil All The Time” is now streaming on Netflix.