MPA Rating: [R]
Netflix started streaming the film Woman of the Hour, Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut.
This movie is anything but calm. It follows a series of real events that happened in the 1970s. In 1978, Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto), a serial killer, is on a game show called The Dating Game as an eligible bachelor for the woman Cheryl Bradshaw (Anna Kendrick). The contestants cannot see each other until Cheryl picks one of the men to go on a date with.
Cheryl Bradshaw was not the only woman he has tried abducting, unfortunately he was successful in his plans with a few.
In my understanding, it was a great depiction of what it was like to be a woman in the 1970s. A woman in the crowd of The Dating Game recognized Rodney and tried to tell a security officer about the trouble he had made. The security person did not believe her and sent her down a rabbit hole of trying to find the right person to talk to about it. After failing, she went to the police where they just waved her off. Luckily, Cheryl was able to escape Rodney’s clutches due to her quick-thinking skills.
Although he was unsuccessful with Cheryl, he succeeded in kidnapping a runaway teenager named Amy (Autumn Best) in 1979. Rodney tied her up and beat her. Amy was able to escape his clutches by tricking him into thinking she was embarrassed and that she didn’t want anybody to find out about what was happening. This gave her an opportunity to escape once he took her by car to a nearby gas station. She was able to go into a diner nearby and notify the police. This is when Rodney gets arrested.
Rodney was released on bail after his arrest. After being released, he murdered a 21-year-old woman and a 12-year-old girl. Over the decade of the 1970s, he had been reported to the police by multiple people and didn’t receive any consequences for his actions. A while later, in 1979, Rodney was rearrested, and he finally started receiving the punishments for his crimes. He was imprisoned for the remainder of his life.
While watching this movie, I got the chills more than once.
Daniel Zovatto did an impeccable job of acting as a serial killer. After talking to my sister-in-law about this movie, we both agreed that we would not be able to see him act in anything else other than something eerie. He gives a sort of Evan Peters vibe that makes everyone feel uneasy.
I like that this film did not romanticize the serial killer like other films have with other criminals. Movies such as these should be seen as educational, and this one was, especially in the realm of believing victims and taking them seriously.
This being Anna Kendrick’s first film as a director, I would say she did amazing. She made this film to show the way women get out of situations that they are forcibly put in. It is a testament to the strength and bravery that the escapees had.
Kendrick has come a long way from being the side character she was in movies such as Scott Pilgrim vs The World and Twilight.
Grade: 9.8/10
