Struggling to get cast, Sheryl (Anna Kendrick) begrudgingly agrees to let her agent book her to appear on The Dating Game.  After needling her three potential suitors, she agrees to go on a date with Mystery Man #3, Rodney (Daniel Zovatto).  In the audience, Laura (Nicolette Robinson) leaves the taping early to find a producer, recognizing Rodney as a potentially dangerous man. 

Making her directorial debut, Anna Kendrick delivered Woman of the Hour to the 2023 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival where it was acquired by Netflix.  Ian McDonald penned the script chronicling the reign of terror presided over by Rodney Alcala who was eventually arrested in connection to 8 confirmed, but potentially 130 or more deaths in various states from 1968-1979. Running a breezy 95 minutes, the film serves as an entry point into the nefarious Alcala legacy while trying not to sensationalize the drama out of respect for the victims and their families.  It is a noble effort, and in that sense a very successful effort, but as a film, audiences are quickly aware of that hesitation and the narrative does not dig as deeply as we are accustomed to. 

Some of that hesitation may be due to Kendrick playing double duty in the film as both director and star, two demanding jobs that few are capable of pulling off successfully.  The performance is fine, not quite passive, but is lacking in real action. Kendrick is very much trying to find her voice as a director and as she goes through her scales, the film fails to gain an identity of itself; not quite a song, but the elements are there to make a fine singer.  In turn, Zach Kuperstein’s camera and Andy Canny’s edit are all competent, yet stagnant, but this may be a byproduct of the bland nature that many modern films have unfortunately adopted.  Brent Thomas’ production design captures the period, but again, there is no real statement piece here that makes this feel like a film.  On one hand, it can be admired that it all just feels natural, but on the other, the visuals all feel very one-note as if everything was run through a filter so the blues and pinks that should lend some sense of time and place to the film all have this dull quality about them. 

In front of the lens, opposite Kendrick is Zovatto’s Rodney. The actor similarly seems to have had his performance filtered and sieved of anything too bold or daring so as to conform to the norms. With some awkward mannerisms and gait, we understand he is a villain, and the film handles his crimes with a bluntness but it never really builds up the suspense required for a narrative.  Taking Hitchcock’s famous adage about how the audience needs to know the bomb is under the table before it goes off a little too much to heart, McDonald’s script does little to jolt us past what we know and expect to deliver any real thrills.  This is not necessarily a bad thing had it been presented as more of a drama or a straight documentary, but the film aspires to be a thriller with a script that quickly reveals its hand and never builds up to a satisfying twist, or even a conclusion.  The story is interesting and the elements are all there for a true crime thriller, and while Sheryl’s story is certainly an interesting one that is easy to pitch, it does not seem the correct route into this specific story. 

Woman of the Hour is perfectly fine, in both the good and bad connotations which that word insinuates in this situation. Thankfully shaking the exploitative nature of the story which seems tailor-made for the likes of Ryan Murphy, it went too far in the development of its narrative yet delivers a toothless bite.  Even in its thesis of trying to give a voice back to the victims, it brushes up against some interesting points but fails to capitalize.  Thankfully, we are spared any gratuitous scenes of violence, but in those final 10 or so minutes when the film follows Amy (Autumn Best) who eventually escapes from Rodney and makes the call leading to his arrest, it becomes clear that her story would have been a much more cinematic in route, would have allowed Kendrick more time in the director’s seat, and increased the tension and suspense in the film while still seizing and streamlining that perfectly contrived storyline of meeting a serial killer on a tv dating game; something so strange, it could only be true.