Woman of the Hour

I ended up being really frustrated watching this given the fact that I thought it had a really good hook. In the end the whole thing just ends up feeling like a series of short films only a couple of which I found to be engaging and when put together into one film it just ends up feeling repetitive. That's not to say it isn't effective, it is absolutely appropriately brutal its depiction of violence towards women but also in how it portrays the sexism of the 70's. The main thing that intrigued me about this movie was the idea of the game show portion and that ended feeling really undercooked and in the overall narrative it didn't ultimately amount to much. There are very effective sequences and it's very handsomely shot but it's so uneven that I couldn't help but feel disappointed in the final product.

This film is a highly dramatized, poorly paced retelling of true events. While I did enjoy how the movie handled sexism and violence towards women, and while there were several really effective sequences, the overall product just falls kind of flat.

The movie bounces around between Alcala with various victims, Sheryl on the dating show, and Sheryl in her personal life. The movie can't seem to decide if it wants to focus on Sheryl, the dating show filming, or Alcala. Although it's a neat factoid that Alcala was on a dating show, that really doesn't work for the crux of an entire film unless you're going to have people's lungs exploding and heads spinning a la Late Night with the Devil.

Not a bad movie but wouldn't necessarily recommend it either.

Sheryl (Anna Kendrick) is a struggling actress in Hollywood in the 1970's. Ready to give up and move back home, her agent books her on The Dating Game, where she can pick from 3 bachelors to go on a date. Among the gentlemen suitors to be is Rodney (Daniel Zovatto), a serial rapist and killer, who wants Sheryl to be the 'Woman of the Hour'.

The film is decently acted and shot; reminiscent of the '70's, where everything is a hue of brown and orange. The fault is the script. Most of the film revolves around Sheryl, but the other various crimes that Rodney commits are far more interesting. The climax of the film is lackluster and may leave the viewer less than satisfied.

Might be worth a watch. Don't expect much.

This film spoke to me for a couple of reasons. I was a college student during the time depicted in this film, and I remember very well how naïve many young women were about how manipulative, conniving, and dangerous some men could be. I'm fortunate that nothing happened to me, because I certainly took some risks in situations where I should have known better. And then when something like a sexual crime did happen to a young woman, law enforcement didn't always take it seriously. They often thought the girl was asking for it because, for example, she was wearing a short skirt and walking alone at night.

The pacing of this film is deliberate and intense, and it switches back and forth between time frames and victims. I found it a little annoying at first, but it all made sense at the end. I thought Anna Kendrick and Daniel Zovatto played their roles extremely well. Zovatto came across as creepy AF. A few points are fictionalized, of course, and I'm not sure how much. I did some reading about Rodney Alcala, and the way he was apprehended is essentially accurate. If you can deal with the slow pace of this film, it's well worth the watch.

Woman of the Hour follows the story of serial killer Rodney Alcala along with his appearance he made on the game show, The Dating Game. If you're like me, I didn't know anything about this story at all going into the film, so it was a really interesting watch. This is a good not great movie, but Anna Kendrick did a great job in her directorial debut. I really like what she did with this film, it just felt like it was missing something though. Aside from a couple scenes, it lacks the suspense that could've made this a really great thriller. Regardless, this is a solid movie that I would recommend giving a watch once and I hope we see more of Anna Kendrick directing in the future!