Jan 8

Jan 8 Movie Review : Woman of the Hour (2023)

No one likes a preachy movie unless they already agree with the statement it is trying to make. A statement like "women shouldn't be killed when they refuse to indiscriminately hand out sexual favours" seems self-evident when you say it like this, but try to explain that a woman can get startled on a date and it turns into a trapezoidal debate about the art of seduction or whatever. With that said, I think Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut Woman of the Hour does a solid job at contextualizing the inherent dangers of dating for women.

Woman of the Hour is based on the true story of The Dating Game Killer Rodney Alcala (played by brilliant Costa Rican actor Daniel Zovatto) who cruelly and indiscriminately murdered women in the seventies and once participated in a dating show because he felt that he was irresistible and whatnot. The contestant Sheryl Bradshaw (Kendrick) had to choose between three suitors and Alcala showed to be unsurprisingly more witty and charming than his counterparts, unwittingly boxing her into a lethal situation.

This is a serial killer movie, but not really

I don’t have much to say about the overall aesthetics of Woman of the Hour outside the fact that Anna Kendrick ripped a page off the David Fincher Storytelling 101 playbook, but I don’t begrudge her for it. It’s not mindless worship and she uses that style in order to enhance the point she's trying to make about gendered violence: women get killed on dates because they’re socialized to be nice and accommodating. They feel like they have to be and as men, we feel like they SHOULD be.

Now, how is that not preachy? Glad you asked, because Kendrick brilliantly makes her point on this one. She never pinpoints one particular situation where a man is outwardly and obviously being a dick. Instead, she weaves this tapestry of precariously balanced social relationships for every woman in her movie and a third of them end up being killed by Alcala. Kendrick establishes a clear link between symbolic, gendered violence a man is not even going to perceive in his own social interactions and murder.

That’s what Woman of the Hour is really about.

Whenever it’s when Laura (Nicolette Robinson) is trying to warn the production about having a sex maniac on their set and being left alone by the security guard in the production office after hours to Sheryl just politely trying not to give her phone number to Alcala, Kendrick establishes how such seemingly innocuous disregards for women safety can lead to murder and guess what? She makes a good argument for it. Sure, Woman of the Hour enhanced atmosphere and whatnot, but you could see this happen.

The part that is more straightforwardly feminist is also fun

Of course, Woman of the Hour being a feminist movie means that it has more of a straight up rah-rah feminist edge to it and you know what? I didn’t mind it either. I’m talking here about the scene where Sheryl rewrites her questions to the contestants on the fly at the suggestion of the makeup lady in order to showcase her intelligence and test their wit. I thought it was fun and relatable because 1) we all know dumbasses trying to game the system to bat above their average 2) it’s fun to see people being tested.

I didn’t verify whether it happened in real life, but I doubt it. It also allowed us to see Alcala’s interpret Daniel Zovatto switch his behavior from creepy to charming on the fly and he’s so good that you want to believe he’s a real catch, therefore illustrating perfectly well why narcissists and psychopaths can thrive in our society. It’s empowering to see Sheryl finally assert herself over a male dominated set because we empathize with her situation. She was properly set as an underdog and it’s just flat out well-written.

Well, not that I want to shit on your parade and whatnot, but Woman of the Hour was written by a man named Ian McDonald, it was originally named Rodney & Sheryl and it was featured on the 2017 Hollywood black list of best unproduced screenplays. With that said, I do think that Anna Kendrick’s sensibility (in terms of actors direction and in the editing room) contributed to making Woman of the Hour what it is. Not exactly an achievement in filmmaking, but a well-executed movie with a heart and a mind.

Kendrick might just be a better director than she is an actress (Spoiler: I never really liked her as an actress).