After premiering during the festival circuit over a year ago,Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut has finally found its home on Netflix. The true crime drama centers around the real-lifeDating Gamekiller, Rodney Alcala, played expertly by Daniel Zovatto.The Dating Gamewas a popular ABC reality show in the ’70s that had a different woman contestant on each episode ask three anonymous bachelors a series of questions before picking a winner to go on a date with her.
Alcala infamously appeared on an episode of the show in 1978 during the midst of his brutal killing spree.Woman of the Hourtells this story in a non-linear fashion, including the years before and after his time as a contestant on the show,
Woman of the Hour
Read Our ReviewWoman of the Hourdeals with sensitive topics that could have easily been exploited for entertainment’s sake, but the film handles the difficult subject with sympathy and grace in Kendrick’s capable hands. She treats the lives of these real-life victims with care and sincerity that allows the viewer to feel empathy toward them while still feeling unsettled at Alcala’s rage hidden under his charming attitude.
Kendrick also pointedly calls out the misogyny of the times with witty humor and not-so-subtle remarks. She proved to be a worthy director, and graciously handled the harsh story in the following ways.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Woman of the Hour
The Camera Moves Away When the Violence Is at Its Worst
Throughout this non-linear timeline, we see a mix of Alcala’s encounters with previous and future victims relative to his time onThe Dating Game. In each encounter,Alcala appears polite, charming, and even gentlemanly with his female victims. He always works photography into the conversation so he can snap photos of his victims for his scrapbook that he actually shows to people.
Inevitably, he reaches the point in each conversation where his hidden rage wins over and he attacks. The camera will show the beginning of the attacks, but pan away slowly so we never actually see the result of the violence. We may hear the struggle, but we never see how it ends.
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Kendrick’s decision to shy away from the violence works well as a creative decision for a multitude of reasons. We know that Alcala is a serial killer and his M.O. is to kill. We don’t need to see how he brutalized each victim because we already know the outcome. Not showing the full attacks also respects the real-life victims and their loved ones who have dealt with these losses for decades.
Adapting a true crime event into a film or television show always runs the risk of being insensitive or exploitative, and Kendrick mitigates this by allowing the audience to infer and respecting the real lives of Alcala’s victims.
Using Humor to Call Out the Misogyny of the Time
While she has dabbled in other genres, most of us associateKendrick with her comedic roles.Woman of the Houris by no means a comedy, but she does inject moments of humor into the film. The humor is present mainly in the scenes taking place during the taping of Cheryl Bradshaw’s (Kendrick)The Dating Gameepisode.
Cheryl is visibly uncomfortable with the sexism on set from both host Ed Burke (Tony Hale) and one of the bachelors. About halfway through the taping, Cheryl decides to take the game into her own hands and rewrite all the remaining questions she is to ask the bachelors. She asks them lighthearted but purposefully tricky questions to trip them up, causing the audience to laugh hysterically while irritating Ed.
In purposefully tripping the bachelors up, Cheryl calls out the sexism and misogyny in the room through a humorous lens and without truly offending anyone. Her last question to the bachelors is “What are girls for?”, a question that hilariously makes two of the bachelors malfunction. It’s not only the nail in the coffin for bachelors one and two, but an important question that many men misunderstand the answer to.
The Film Focuses on the Lives of the Victims, Not Rodney
Many movies and shows about serial killers focus on the killers themselves, what caused their horrific behavior, and what they did to their victims.Woman of the Hoursubverts this by putting the focus on the women Alcala hurt, rather than on him. Besides Cheryl, we see glimpses into the lives of three other women he hurt in the ’70s. We get to hear a little bit about their lives, their hopes and dreams, and in the cases of Cheryl and Amy (Autumn Best), how they got away. Alcala is never the central focus, nor is he the protagonist. The movie may be based on his awful killings, but the movie is not his story. It’s his victims.
Cheryl’s timeonThe Dating Gameand her brief but terrifying encounter with Alcala serve as the bridge between his past and future victims' stories. The first victim we are introduced to is Sarah (Kelley Jackle), a woman whose boyfriend left her after they found out they were having a baby. She vented about this to Alcala as he took photos of her out in the valleys of California. She told him how her mother didn’t like him from the start, but she couldn’t handle hearing “I told you so.” Sarah told him how she thought her boyfriend just didn’t want to be a father.
We are also introduced to Charlie (Kathryn Gallagher), an artsy flight attendant who just moved into a new apartment in Manhattan. She made the unfortunate mistake of asking Alcala to help her move her new furniture upstairs and invited him in. She told him how much she loved being a flight attendant and traveling the world. He told her about supposedly taking a college class with Roman Polanski. She told him that her dream had always been to travel to Egypt and that she was supposed to be going there for work the following week.
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After being introduced to Cheryl and her struggle to land any acting jobs, we meet the teenage runaway, Amy. Amy is rebellious and mostly carefree, living life one moment at a time. Despite initial hesitation at hanging out with Alcala, she falls for his charming ways and heads out to the valley with him. The film goes back to her every so often, as we later find out that she’s the one who had him arrested and eventually put on trial. We get to see that she outsmarted him by asking him to keep what happened between them a secret after waking up bruised and battered.
Emphasizing these women rather thanthe serial killercreates a bond with the audience. These are all real people after all, and giving us some insight into their lives and personalities reiterates that they are not merely characters in a movie. They were real people who had aspirations and goals, friends and families, careers and hobbies. Allowing the audience to spend some time with them gives their stories a chance to be told.
