‘Woman of the Hour’ review: Anna Kendrick in the (director’s) chair

The Oscar nominee’s directorial debut, Woman of the Hour, is an uneven but ultimately satisfying true crime thriller.

Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour harkens back to a time when game shows ruled the screen. If you didn’t live through the format’s heyday, you might be surprised to learn that game show drama rivaled that of any reality show airing today. A 1960 act of Congress was passed to stem the steady tide of rigged shows that began once a 1954 Supreme Court case allowed shows to start issuing cash prizes.

An Ohio man once successfully cracked the “random” sequence behind Press Your Luck and set a new record for single-day game show winnings, inspiring a debate as to what did or did not constitute cheating. And Chuck Barris — creator of hits like The Gong Show, The Newlywed Game, and The Dating Game — once claimed his work as a television producer was actually a front for his real job as a CIA assassin.

A big part of Barris’ success was his unique combination of charisma and eccentricity. And his work covered all the bases. The Gong Show featured weirdos, The Newlywed Game featured regular folk, and The Dating Game featured attractive people. Being shot in LA and needing a steady stream of camera-ready contestants, The Dating Game relied heavily on aspiring actors for its contestant pool. As such, the show had early appearances from dozens of pre-famous celebrities, including Steve Martin, Tom Selleck, and Farrah Fawcett.

And once, in 1978, it gave its top prize to a serial killer.

Game show drama.

The titular Woman of the Hour is Sheryl Bradshaw (Anna Kendrick), a once-aspiring actor rapidly losing motivation in the face of a cruel industry. She has no real interest in appearing on The Dating Game, but a spot on a major show is too good of an opportunity to pass up.

But when it’s time to film, she discovers the show’s host (Tony Hale) is a misogynistic cad and the questions she’s expected to ask the unappealing bachelors are equally degrading. So, to the production’s chagrin, Sheryl starts to improvise. Once the topics have switched to feminism and philosophy, the charming Bachelor #3 (Daniel Zovatto) quickly emerges as a reasonable romantic choice.

The narrative takes a nonlinear approach, so viewers know right away that Bachelor #3 is actually Rodney Alcala, the serial killer who is estimated to have killed as many as 130 people before his arrest in 1979. The film frequently cuts away from Cheryl’s story to show Alcala’s interactions with some of his victims, most notably Amy (Autumn Best), a teenage runaway whom he asks to photograph for a supposed photography contest

Anna Kendrick can be too funny for her own good.

Anyone going into Woman of the Hour is likely well aware of Anna Kendrick’s talents as a performer, and no one should be disappointed on that front. Unfortunately, Kendrick’s acting ability sometimes overwhelm what she’s trying to do as a director. There are multiple scenes that are clearly dramatic in intent, yet feature Kendrick giving a notably comedic performance. It’s a smaller issue and the film’s most dramatic scenes are relatively unaffected. But the midpoint of the film frequently drags simply because it can’t make up its mind as to what tone it’s going for.

The biggest success of the film isn’t even Cheryl’s story, though that does come into its own by the time the climax arrives. Where Woman of the Hour really shines is when it breaks away from the main narrative to focus on Alcala’s victims. Zovatto has the opportunity to fully demonstrate his dramatic abilities, adjusting his persona for each person he targets. And best performances in the entire film come from actors like Best, Kathryn Gallagher, and Dylan Schmid who only appear in a few scenes but shine in every frame.

The bottom line

Woman of the Hour isn’t the best true crime thriller in the world. It isn’t even the best true crime thriller of this year. But there are enough flashes of brilliance to make it worthwhile film. And while Kendrick is clearly still finding her footing as a director, there’s more than enough promise here for viewers to be excited to see what comes next.

Woman of the Hour is streaming now on Netflix. You can watch the trailer here.

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Images courtesy of Netflix.