By Ben Pearson/April 7, 2019 11:00 am EST
Jack O’Connell, the English actor with credits on Skins, Harry Brown, Starred Up, ‘71, and Unbroken, plays Cameron Todd Willingham, a man who was convicted of murdering his own children in the early 1990s. Dern plays Houston resident Elizabeth Gilbert (not the Eat Pray Love and Coyote Ugly author), a radio DJ who begins to discover that the circumstances around his case are not nearly as cut and dried as the prosecution presented them.
Fair warning: if you don’t know how the real-life story turned out, do not read this official synopsis, because it actively spoils the conclusion of the case.
Trial by Fire is the true-life Texas story of the unlikely bond between an imprisoned death row inmate (Jack O’Connell) and a mother of two from Houston (Laura Dern) who, though facing staggering odds, fights mightily for his freedom. Cameron Todd Willingham, a poor, uneducated heavy metal devotee with a violent streak and a criminal record, is convicted of arson-related triple homicide in 1992. During his 12 years on death row, Elizabeth Gilbert, an improbable ally, uncovers questionable methods and illogical conclusions in his case, and battles with the state to expose suppressed evidence that could save him. Her efforts ultimately fail, and since Willingham’s execution, the disturbing question remains: Did Texas execute an innocent man?
