Woman of the Hour review by Bobby Blakey
Anna Kendrick has had a great career as an actress doing it all acting, singing and everything in between. For her latest film Woman of the Hour, she is not only starring but making her directorial debut behind the camera as well. The film stars Daniel Zovatto, Tony Hale, Nicolette Robinson, Pete Holmes, and Autumn Best. Could this be a new direction in her already impressive career, or will it fail to find the ratings and conviction it needs to succeed?
Woman of the Hour follows the stranger-than-fiction true story of Cheryl Bradshaw and Rodney Alcala. Bradshaw was a bachelorette on the hit '70s TV matchmaking show The Dating Game and chose handsome and funny bachelor No. 3, Rodney Alcala. But behind Alcala's charming facade was a deadly secret: He was a psychopathic serial killer.
I remember reading about this story years ago and thinking it was the kind of thing you only hear in the movies so surprising it took this long to get the treatment. When I saw the trailer, I thought it looked a bit more lighthearted than I was expecting so happy to see the direction it actually goes in the film itself. While not as light or even as dark as I expected it offers a more balanced story on all sides.
Kendrick could have easily kept the focus on the game show and how all of it unfolds leading to Alcala’s eventual capture, but instead spreads it out for more depth in not just Bradshaw and Alcala’s stories, but some of the victims as well. The time jump aspect keeps you in line with the horrors of Alcala’s killings while shifting it back and forth to his more pleasant exterior on the show.
On the other side we see Bradshaw in her struggling career as she isn’t sure about
this gig and eventually fully embracing it. It brings a balance to their lives and experiences in completely different places and their eventual interaction. It’s one of those stories that reminds you of how little you really know of people and their true nature. Knowing it happened like this and so publicly is not only wild shows the true demented nature of Alcala putting himself in the public eye like this.
I loved how they structured the moments of atrocities of Alcala and what he did to those poor women. There is just enough to let you know of the horrible things he did and how he lured them in without disrespecting the victims in real life. I love horror films and the gore of it all, but when you are dealing with the real thing it takes a different sensibility to respect them, but also punch home the point of how bad it really is and not sugar coat it.
Kendrick does a great job in her directorial debut balancing the light and dark elements of the story and making it compelling without being too heavy. I hope this is just the first of what she does because I think she has a good eye and creative nature to be as successful behind the camera as she is in front.
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Check out Woman of the Hour streaming now exclusively on Netflix.