For her directorial debut, Anna Kendrick chose a particularly daunting task in tackling the story of the notorious serial killer Rodney Alcara, who staged a terrifying murder spree in the ’70s in which he is thought to have killed upwards of 130 people. The center of Kendrick’s movie, Woman of the Hour, focuses on his appearance in plain sight on a 1978 episode of ABC’s The Dating Game, in which he was the bachelor that contestant Cheryl Bradshaw wound up choosing to go on a date with, not knowing that this was a period in the middle of his murderous spree.
ABC’s 20/20 devoted a full hour in May 2021 to the story of the cold-blooded killer who died in incarceration, but Kendrick’s film version has more on its mind that just the facts. It had its world premiere Friday as a Special Presentation at the Toronto Film Festival.
With a compelling script by Ian McDonald that was on the Black List, Kenrick employs a non-linear style to skip back and forth among various years in the decade to depict this man’s modus operandi, in which Alcara (Daniel Zovatto) appeared as a photographer promising various women he meets a modeling contract as he takes snapshots of them in various poses just to prove he is legit. He isn’t. As this film presents it, his basic routine is to seduce them enough to get them to accompany him for a shoot in the desert, where he would brutally kill them. Those scenes are fairly graphic and uncomfortable to watch as Kendrick doesn’t hold much back for the imagination.
Cut to Cheryl (Kenrick), dealing with various auditions as the aspiring actress just arrived in L.A. that she is. Her best friend (played by comedian Pete Holmes) and possible romantic partner — at least from what he would want — encourages her to go on The Dating Game for exposure when her agent suggests it would be a good career move. She doesn’t want to do it but reluctantly agrees. The centerpiece of the film are the scenes revolving around the show; they are also the most engaging as she at first seems to adopt the mindless persona that host Ed Burke (Tony Hale) wants her to portray. But after round one she takes on an aggressive stance in questioning that is far from the vapid style of the show and more attuned to Jeopardy. Bachelor #3, Alcara, puts on the charm and wins the day as they are presented with a prize of a trip to Carmel. Things get creepy as he asks her to dinner that night, and later stalks her in the studio parking lot as she goes back to her car. Meanwhile, an audience member (Nicollette Robinson) recognizes him from an encounter where she suspected he killed her good friend and tries to get security to take her seriously during the show, to no avail.
There is no doubt this incident occurred on the run of The Dating Game — footage of the show itself is readily available on YouTube. However, the actual facts of what happened on air are made up: Alcara and Bradshaw did not win a date to Carmel, but rather tennis lessons, and he was Bachelor #1, not #3, as depicted in the hilarious encounters with his fellow bachelors during commercials. Also, little is known about the facts of what Bradshaw went through except that she is still alive to tell her story.
Kenrick is a real live wire and delivers another knockout performance. Zovatto is perfectly cast as he looks like a doppelganger of the real Alcara and is relatively unknown enough to be believable as this wacko. Hale plays the fake enthusiasm of the host to perfection; Jim Lange was the actual host then, but the filmmakers are not sticking totally to the complete facts. There is dramatic license being taken.
On the basis of all this Kendrick, really does have a future behind the camera especially since she pulled this all off in just 24 shooting days and shows a real talent for staging scenes, one in particular had me jumping from my seat. It all makes you wonder just who ABC is selecting for The Bachelor these days and just why they seem to be fine with this film depicting a vicious serial killer as a contestant on one of their shows.
Kendrick, Roy Lee, Stephen Crawford, Andrew Deane ,J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules are the producers.
Title: Woman of the Hour
Festival: Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentation)
Distributor: AGC Studios for Vertical Entertainment
Director: Anna Kendrick
Screenwriter: Ian McDonald
Cast: Anna Kendrick, Daniel Zovatto, Nicollette Robinson, Kathryn Gallagher, Kelley Jakie, Pete Holmes, Tony Hale
Running time: 1 hr 29 min