True crime tales of serial killers have become so abundant that they tend to blur and desensitize the very subject. Woman of the Hour could have fallen into that same camp but thankfully steers hard into something more fascinating than how many women were killed by Rodney Alcala, aka The Dating Game Killer. Here is a film that doesn’t so much want to play detective by finding a motive but recognizes the society of patriarchy that perpetuated this killer’s hatred of women. Nearly every kill is witnessed from a distance, but every close-up of dialogue is ten times more chilling for the overarching power dynamic.
The suspense is richly woven as the film reveals the history of the killer between his latest target. From the start, we know that Rodney (Daniel Zovatto) has killed women by luring them in with his photography. However, Cheryl (Anna Kendrick) does not know this when she asks him questions on The Dating Game. All she knows is that this is her only chance at finding an acting job and that Rodney seems the least sleazy of the three bachelors on the show. The wise woman applying her makeup between takes warns her that there isn’t so much the right guy to choose on the show as there is the least dangerous. They don’t know how threatening and intimidating Rodney can become when the cameras are off.
Kendrick directs this film with a firm attention to what matters most, taking care not to bask in the violence but always make it present. Rodney looms over his victims with his smile and charm, only for it to dissipate when the words cease. In that moment, we would want to leave as much as his victims. The camera also pulls back, but we still watch with morbid curiosity from a distance. Someone is being murdered in the distance and nobody can help them. That’s scary enough, but the mysoginist would likely spew such vile apologia as, “Well, she shouldn’t have been alone with him.”
But even populated places offer little comfort, loaded with just as much tension as Rodney’s desert killing ground. This lack of safety is best showcased through Laura (Nicolette Robinson), one of the few witnesses to Rodney’s murders. She spots him while in the audience of The Dating Game and attempts to find a way to have him arrested. Nobody listens. The producers won’t meet with her and the police won’t help. There is anger at a system so unwilling to listen to women, be they reporting a murder or trying to get a word in edgewise. The same two-faced nature of men is also present in the Dating Show host Ed Burke (Tony Hale). With the camera on, he’s the chipper host introducing bachelors and bachelorettes. Between takes, he’s a vocal sexist, low-key racist, and despises Cheryl’s incredible ad-libbing that steals the spotlight.
Cheryl becomes a more intriguing character for how she represents a channeled frustration. When she decides to go off script for the dating questions, her words are biting and place her firmly in control. She recognizes that she will only be on the show for one episode and might as well live it up. She asserts a dominance that evokes a freedom of the women’s liberation movement, but also a darkness still lurking beneath her suitors. Bound by a similar sense of societal perceptions, Cheryl can’t see the killer right before her. The building tension of their after-show date grows tense, especially with the camera pulling back as Rodney’s trap draws closer.
Woman of the Hour succeeds at being more than a retro serial killer dramatization, digging deeper into the societal than the psychological. There are plenty of biopics on killers that seek a palatable motif while this film stands apart. It observes the world that embeds and encourages that type of behavior, from the lack of police investigations to the casual sexism that permeates the era. By pulling the lens so far back, Kendrick’s film places greater importance on the nature of the killings and highlights something far more sinister that lurks in the minds of men. That’s far more terrifying than whatever money shot a lesser director would have favored when Rodney strangles a woman to death. The audience leans in as the camera pulls back, forcing us to delve into the darker areas of these crimes, becoming a fascinating challenge for our views on murder, sexism, and every compounding factor that fuels cruelty.