Most of us remember the tawdry tat fest that was Blind Date. Hosted by a ginger Cilla Black, contestants were trotted out with their scripted questions and the three potential dates behind the screen gave their pre-scripted innuendo laden answers. Our own Editor’s appearance was dropped from the show as his answer when asked how he would persuade the contestant to take up his favourite sport he replied. ‘Well I love football because there’s nothing I like better than dribbling in the box before I shoot!’ (‘You’re fired! – Ed). It was a game show format imported from the US where it was titled ‘The Dating Game’ and it’s here where aspiring actress Sheryl Bradshaw (Anna Kendrick) finds herself in, ‘Woman of the Hour’. At the end of her tether auditioning for men who were more interested in her body than her talent it’s a last ditch attempt at heightening her profile by her agent.
Hosted by cheesy chauvinist played by Tony Hale who gets her to wear a more figure hugging dress she finds herself whisked through make up and on to the set to ask the banal questions she’s been handed. Yet despite it being her choice it’s the three men who are told they will, ‘get the girl’. It turns out to be a prescient question because contestant number 3 was Rodney Alcala who it would later transpire was a serial killer. It’s a premise that sounds a bit too exploitation thriller but this is a shockingly true and horrifying story.
Alcala is played by with an easy charm by Daniel Zovatto working as a photographer and flattering women into posing for him and always to their detriment as him and his lens are the last thig they will ever see in a chilling opening scene that sees him and his victim alone in a wide desolate open country side with no one for miles to rescue this particular victim.
Woman of the Hour is Anna Kendrick’s latest starrer and is a concerted move away from the light frothy comedies. Like her previous film, ‘Alice, darling’ this deals as much with male attitudes, chauvinism and how those in a position to do something did nothing brilliantly illustrated by an audience member as the show who recognises Alcala and tries to get a studio security guard to help. Kendrick is very good in the role yet she is even better as the director of the film in her debut feature. As a thriller it hops back and fore throughout the 1970’s when this occurred with a script loaded with knowing lines, ‘Everyone’s risky!’, Alcala tells a victim to be. While later a woman jokingly complains, ‘Is it possible to get a guy in this town that isn’t a maniac?’
It does avoid the gruesome gore of most serial killer thrillers and is just as effective notably in a scene where Sheryl and Alcala go for an after show drink and later walk through a car park outside the studio. Both scenes are highly unsettling and brilliantly handled and Kendrick really has a flair for ratcheting up the tension. Zovatto is all too convincing as Alcala, one moment a smooth talker yet there’s still something uneasy about his whole demeanour.
At a brisk 90 minutes this is always captivating and the very end credits reveal an even bigger shock. Just how Alcala was caught is testament to the incredible bravery, quick thinking and tenacity of one of his potential victims that says as much about the strength of women as it does about the misogyny of certain men and as a directorial debut goes Kendrick proves herself to be the woman of the hour.
related feature : ‘Alice, Darling’ – director Mary Nighy chats about the Anna Kendrick film
related feature : ‘Alice, Darling’ reviewed
Here’s the Woman of the our trailer……
Woman of the hour is released on Netflix on 18th October 2024
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