Woman Of The Hour

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Woman Of The Hour is a true crime biopic about Rodney Alcala, the Dating Show Killer. Within this film we get glimpses of Alcala's crime spree, his game show encounter with Sheryl Bradshaw and his ultimate arrest in 1979.

 

The quality of the writing for this movie really surprised me in terms of what I got drawn in by. The film has two focal points; one in which we get a random viewpoint into Rodney Alcala's murder spree, and then a glimpse into Sheryl Bradshaw's life in Hollywood. I loved seeing Sheryl's life in this specific time period and the challenges she faces from men in her life. Immediately we see her struggle at the end of an audition as two male producers criticise her and her appearance, ask if she's open to nudity and all the while clearly forgetting her even though she's still in the room. Later we see further moments like this with Sheryl being asked to audition in a swimsuit, or only getting her first acting job as a contestant on a dating game show. Later at the show itself Sheryl's appearance is picked up, she is handed scripted questions that cater to the male contestants, and she is given explicit instructions to act dumb and smile. Throughout the whole film, Sheryl is also put into situations with male friends where she feels forced to give them something like sex, attempts to flee dangerous dates and demonstrates survival tactics known to many women in order to escape a hostile date. Woman Of The Hour isn't the most well-constructed film of 2024, but it drives home some phenomenal feminist themes that are very well written.

 

Daniel Zovatto, who played Rodney, has an unsettling charisma that makes for a good serial killer performance; Zovatto has such duality to him in that he can be likeable while simultaneously feeling dangerous. Kathryn Gallagher, who played Charlie, is perhaps the most interesting portrayal of one of Rodney's victims; Gallagher presents a very grounded figure who you feel like you could bump into right on the street, which made her whole arc all the more tragic for a viewer. Matty Finochio and Geoff Gustafson, who played the Casting Directors, brought one of my favourite scenes in the film, and it comes very early on; the way this pair flip from very brutal to a sort of nice façade is quite entertaining, and they play off Kendrick well.

 

However, the best performance came from Anna Kendrick, who played Sheryl. This is a very grounded protagonist performance for Kendrick, the importance of Sheryl isn't that she has some special unique twist, but rather she could be any woman in LA experiencing the dangers of men. When we meet Sheryl, she is exasperated, she cannot find an acting gig, and she is at the whims of sexist producers in a position of power. She has this drive to break in, but even when she is venting her hopes to her male friend, we see her lose a more everyday battle. The scene in which Kendrick's role awkwardly realises her friend is making moves on her, she lightly reproaches him only to be guilted into sleeping with him is an uncomfortable scene that will resonate with audiences. Kendrick plays a woman who often seems like she has to temper herself for others but is growing frustrated at having to do so. I loved seeing Kendrick's charisma and wit ignite at being able to play Sheryl running away with the show, writing her own questions. However, it is her fear that steadily develops when she finally gets to act one on one across from Zovatto that I really loved.

Where the whole thing doesn't work on this for me is the genre component of this; what is probably intended as the main driving force of the movie. The true crime component just doesn't really work, it often feels weirdly inserted into the film and grapples with the Dating Game aspect which is often presented as the main storyline. Yet the more The Dating Game story plays out, it becomes clear this large component of the film is more of a novelty, an almost danger that resulted in Alcala's infamous moniker. There's even a really unnecessary sub-plot tacked on with a friend of a prior victim recognising Alcala that makes the whole Dating Game storyline begin to feel more fiction than fact. The film jumps around in time a lot to show random killings of Alcala's, this creates a distorted sense of pace. It doesn't really add anything to the Alcala story than to just show him as a monstrous killer. Frankly, there are a lot of narrative choices in this that feel like they are put there to pad the story out and make it fit a commercial runtime.

My other main concern for the film is that as a final finished visual product, it left a lot to be desired. Beyond a few 'postcard perfect' location shots, this is a very simple film that holds easy framing and really make the entire Dating Game set quite a bore to watch. The editing adds to the frenetic and uneven pace, even bringing a slow quality to how the whole thing comes together. The score is barely present at all and fails to push any emotional beats further, even the soundtrack is quite a throwaway thing with barely any noteworthy points to draw focus to.

Tony Hale, who played Ed, is a pretty stereotypical game show host role; he has a bit of a tense point with Kendrick that feels really squandered. Nicolette Robinson and Max Lloyd-Jones, who played Laura and Ken respectively, are a couple that comprise the most useless sub-plot of the film; Robinson's more hysterical performance isn't very engaging and feels quite tacked on to the whole thing. Pete Holmes, who played Terry, is an unsettling friend role that never really makes sense from introduction; I never really get chemistry with him and Kendrick so it's hard to even imagine how their roles became friends. Autumn Best and Kelley Jakie, who played Amy and Sarah respectively, are the more disappointing roles who played noteworthy victims to Alcala; Best plays quite a significant one but struggled to lend much emotion to her role.

At times a compelling insight into the world of Hollywood dominated by male authority and violence, but more often a bizarre true crime biopic that suffers from a weak cast and poor directorial debut for Kendrick. I would give Woman Of The Hour a 4.5/10.