Trial by Fire is a the saddest movie Iâve ever seen in my entire life. Itâs based on the real-life sad and depressing story of a Texas man, Cameron Todd Willingham (played here Jack OâConnell), who was sent to death row for allegedly starting the house fire that resulted in the deaths of his three young daughters. While in prison, Willingham is befriended by writer and do-gooder Elizabeth Gilbert (Laura Dern), who tries to help him with an appeal to save his life.
This film hits the same outrage-with-the-system pressure points as Netflixâs Making a Murderer did a few years ago, and Making a Murderer is the only prestige series Iâve ever watched that, if given the chance, I would unsee, because it made me feel so irredeemably awful. So I want to warn the rest of you: Watching this film felt like having rocks thrown at my face. Itâs effective filmmaking, Iâll give it that, and OâConnellâs performance as scumbag-turned-sympathetic-scumbag is one of the best Iâve seen. If you're ready for a gut-wrenching trip through some of the worst things around (the deaths of children, state-sanctioned murder, our failure of a justice system, Rick Perry), you canât do better (or worse?) than this.