It happens more often than you think.
A fact-based story ends with text filling in the blanks, and you wonder, “Why didn’t they make THAT movie instead of the one I just watched?”
“Woman of the Hour” is a textbook example. Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut recalls how a serial killer got away with murder because the system failed us. Over and again.
The film suggests The PatriarchyTM played a part in his ability to escape justice. This is the 1970s, after all, so it’s likely true to a degree. Kendrick leans so hard into that notion we’re left asking when the lectures end and the true story begins.
Kendrick stars as Cheryl, a struggling actress who agrees to a gig to appease her agent. All publicity is good publicity, he says. She thinks he has a point.
She’ll be a contestant on “The Dating Game,” the ’70s show where a lovely lady picks from three eligible bachelors hidden from view. Little does she realize one of the bachelors is a serial rapist, although he comes off as both charming and kind.
That’s Daniel Zovatto as Rodney Alcala, the killer with an aw, shucks charisma that lures ladies into his web.
“Woman of the Hour” recalls his fateful appearance on the show along with flashbacks sharing the fate of select victims. Kendrick stages the latter with chilling authenticity. Our faces aren’t shoved into the violence, but we see enough to fill in the ghastly blanks.
We need these moments to grasp the kind of monster we’re dealing with in the film.
The film starts showing its rhetorical hand early.
Nicolette Robinson plays Laura, a woman in the “Dating Game” studio audience who recognizes Rodney as the person who killed her friend. Laura’s attempts to blow the whistle on him are textbook woke storytelling.
Clunky. Obvious. Strained.
“The Dating Game” apparently ran on sexism, not any gender curiosities according to “Hour.” “Arrested Development” alum Tony Hale plays the leering host who objectifies Cheryl early and often. A subtle touch would have worked better, but screenwriter Ian McDonald doesn’t trust us to know sexism was uglier 50-odd years ago.
Cheryl constantly flexes her brain and empowerment, signaling the movie is shot through a progressive, 21st-century lens.
These story tropes are flat-out exhausting. You can tell the exact same story without resorting to cheap tactics. Viewers will receive the message, and it’ll go down more smoothly.
The heart of the story remains fascinating, and Zovatto gets plenty of credit for underscoring his character’s killing spree. We know he’s shrewd enough to trick victims into being alone with him. That knowledge makes his screen time riveting.
Kendrick’s direction here is precise and startling.
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The longer “Woman of the Hour” goes, the more you realize focusing on the game show was a mistake. Yes, it’s a fascinating pop culture footnote, but the scenes distract from the horrors of the main story.
It also lets “Woman of the Hour” deliver unnecessary lectures.
Kendrick’s film is on more stable footing when she shows Cheryl’s growing unease at Rodney’s banter or how a killer can seduce a lost soul with a pinch of kindness. It would be nice if the film tacked one true element from the real-life case.
Alcala killed again after being released on bail. That’s an angle we all could appreciate as soft-on-crime prosecutors run wild in city after city.
Western culture has come a long way, baby, when it comes to sexual violence. We now listen more often when women share how the men in their lives mistreat them.
There’s much more work to be done here, of course. The MeToo movement could have made even more progress had progressives not used it as a cudgel to smite their ideological foes.
Watchable films like “Woman of the Hour” would serve everyone by sticking to the facts and not doubling down on agendas.
HiT or Miss: “Woman of the Hour” suggests actress/director Anna Kendrick knows how to ratchet up suspense but is easily wooed by clunky dialogue.
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