Reel Rundown: Anna Kendrick impressive as director and lead role in ‘Woman of the Hour’
On Sept. 13, 1978, the producers of the game show “The Dating Game” broadcast a particularly noteworthy episode. It turns out that one of the trio of bachelors who was vying for a date with the single woman contestant was a serial killer.
His name was Rodney Alcala and he ultimately was convicted of five murders (and later two more). His arrest, though, came some 10 months after the show aired.
It is that game-show appearance that first-time filmmaker Anna Kendrick, working from a screenplay by Ian McDonald, uses as the basis for her film “Woman of the Hour.” Streaming on Netflix, the film stars Kendrick as the contestant, while the Costa Rican-born actor Daniel Zovatto portrays Alcala.
Kendrick plays Sheryl, a Los Angeles transplant hoping to break into the entertainment business. She goes from one audition to the next, weathering the sexist comments from the all-male producers while declining to do nude scenes.
Still, she perseveres, running lines with the guy (played by Pete Holmes) who lives in her same apartment complex even while she fends off most of his creepy attempts at seduction.
Then her agent offers her what she refers to as an easy way to get exposure: the chance to appear on “The Dating Game.”
Even as the film is revealing Sheryl’s story, Kendrick cuts back and forth to Alcala preying on one woman after the next. Using his avocation as a photographer, Alcala is able to sweet-talk one potential victim after the next. And just to warn the overly sensitive home viewer, “Woman of the Hour” is at times graphic in how disastrously their connections tend to end.
During the game show’s taping, we observe how Sheryl once again has to endure being sexually marginalized – mostly by the show’s host, Ed (played by Tony Hale) – though she ends up taking control of the situation. For his part, Alcala comes across as the most genial and intelligent of the three bachelor candidates. And he does so even while giving one of his rivals a glimpse of his real, potentially violent self.
The rest of the film plays out not as it really happened (as is typical, movies have no problem changing facts for dramatic purposes). But it works here, given that we know, or should know, that Alcala did eventually get caught.
It helps that Kendrick manages to inject her film with a fair amount of suspense. One intense scene is set after the show’s taping when, following an uncomfortable encounter at a restaurant, Sheryl is confronted by Alcala in a dark parking lot. A dramatic but totally invented sequence portrays how Alcala was eventually arrested, following an extended assault on a young runaway (played well by Autumn Best).
Zovatto is suitably creepy as Alcala, but just as impressive is director Kendrick’s performance as Sheryl. She’s as effective here as she has been in other films, from the officious efficiency consultant she played in “Up in the Air” to the singer in the three “Pitch Perfect” films. And for a first-time filmmaker, she shows that she knows how to tell a stirring visual story.
The main question that viewers might have after watching “Woman of the Hour” is just exactly to whom the film’s title is referring.
Clearly, given how artful the project ends up being, it has to be Kendrick herself.