Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)

The question of who did the deed was not an issue for filmmakers Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger in their first film, Brother's Keeper. But defining that event -- the suffocation of an elderly, ill man by his brother on a farm in upstate New York -- was the issue here; was it an act of mercy or a homicide? In their second documentary, the team have a whodunit on their hands, at least according to their skeptical way of presenting the case against three young men charged in a gruesome triple murder in West Helena, AR. Is the case against this trio -- no model citizens, but hardly career criminals -- a rush to judgment by a small town searching for a quick solution? Sinofsky and Berlinger believe so, and though they give both sides of the case their respective dues, their skepticism is contagious. The prosecution's case rests on a confession elicited from the weak link among the accused, a mentally diminished young man named Jessie Miskelly, and the filmmakers offer an alternative scenario, skillfully turn the righteous onscreen anger of one of the victim's stepparents against him to suggest that authorities ignored this more likely suspect. This is not an easy film to watch; the anguish the victims' families feel is palpable, and it's easy to sympathize with their quest for speedy justice. If Paradise Lost occasionally feels repetitive, it's because Sinofsky and Berlinger are determined to build their case methodically, to offset those understandable emotions. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide