Whilst Woman of the Hour is a true tale about a serial killer, the film is more interested in the other male subjects around him. Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut premiered at TIFF in 2023, with Kendrick also starring as Cheryl Bradshaw an out-of-work actor who had moved to live in LA to fulfil her dream of starring on the big screen, in what is a small piece of this much larger pie about mass murderer Rodney Alcaca, a photographer with a voyeuristic lens for his female victims, which is thought to be as 130 in the 1970s.
Kendrick’s film, however, chooses not to show Alcaca’s murders as simply his doing but as the doing also of the many men in society who let down the female victims. At one point one of the many in this anthology of women states “Is it possible to meet a guy who isn’t a maniac”, a troubling and sad question that the female figures have to ask all too often. In this narrative told in a non-linear fashion, Kendrick conjures up a sense of omnipresent haze, it is not so much about matching the fragments of the puzzle but understanding that as participants of the screen, we are travelling back and forward in time, only to discover Alcaca at the scene of a crime in what feels like the plot of a supernatural horror film – only in this instance it really happened.
Throughout, the narrative of murderous dread is significantly underplayed. The scenes of violence, scattered throughout are shown either at great distance or cropped close up, obscuring a larger and more traumatising picture. We are meant to neglect what the women are feeling, to be like the male figures that play a pivotal role in the fate of these victims. We take an apathetic distance, only numbingly observing the menacing Rodney who occupies the scene in every turn of location and time, as the tension slowly builds up as we begin to wonder how he is going to meet Kendrick’s Cheryl.
She enters through A show called The Dating Game, a stereotypical 70s gameshow where she is placed within a misogynistic environment, given scripted questions to ask three bachelors all vying for her lust. She is to be taken advantage of – her agent tells her the show (which Cheryl believes is too low for her) will get her exposure, specifically this term, a voyeuristic turn of phrase that shows the gaze-like nature of the television screen, there is a too-be-looked-at-ness that hazes over the screen, with at one point Cheryl asking what the different is between being looked at and being seen. Although these sound the same, these are vastly different concepts, with the Women of the Hour looked at, gazed at in their fragment of fame, where they are told to act dumb and accentuate their features in costume, whereas all the female characters want throughout the film is to be seen. Kendrick shoots The Dating Game as a dizzying and advantageous experience in one of the many examples of her strong eye for style behind the camera dealing with a tricky non-linear narrative. Part of the style of the piece is creating a film that is about the 70s with all the retro sets but more importantly about today.
How does she do this? Through the non-linear storytelling, she creates a layer of omnipresence. Whilst much of the mise-en-scene feels authentic to the 70s, there are touches of the modern day. Kendrick feels plucked out of a contemporary setting, showing that these narratives of neglect for female feelings and thoughts are still pertinent in today’s society.
The anthology of female characters are the subjects each dealing with a form of struggle or trauma. From a girl who is travelling to all 50 states alone after her boyfriend left her to avoid being a dad, or another girl who has furniture deserted on the doorstep of her apartment, these are women who are looking for help. They are helpless within a patriarchal society of sad men looking to exploit their helplessness. For instance, Tony Hale’s slimy and sordid gameshow host instructs Cheryl to act dumb, downplaying her aspirations of being an actress, she is given cue cards and told she is cute. When she goes off script, at the behest of the hair and makeup ladies who assist her, Hale interrupts grappling to take back control. This is just one character in a line of pranking security guards, incompetent cops and untrusting boyfriends.
However, what topples Kendrick’s interesting mirage of gender inequality commentary is the underbaked nature in which the conclusion unravels. There is no final act. No final hunt for this man but rather that he is suddenly caught. Meanwhile, Kendrick’s subplot, the only consistent strand throughout the film ends with little to no arc. Cheryl doesn’t change from wanting out from LA, instead, she is a small side note in the story of the menacing mass murderer, undercutting some of the subtexts the film is striding for.
Nevertheless, Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut for the most part is a thrilling success. The use of non-linear narrative is not just for aesthetics but also impacts in plot and subtext. There is a distinct style to the film and a simmering tension with authentic, real and impactful commentary. Yet, the film feels significantly underwhelming, and the fact it is on Netflix rather than in cinemas doesn’t help the matter. What should be a potent and prominent true story feels more like scattered fluff.
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