Woman of the Hour (2024)

Woman of the Hour manages quite effectively to be a few things at once and in doing so shows a lot of promise for Kendrick as film maker. She takes a genre, true crime thriller, and not only makes a successful example of that genre, but bends its tropes and styles into a critique of the genre at the same time as well as making a higher level social commentary about the way American culture perpetuates violence within heterosexual relationships at multiple levels. 

There are two narrative threads happening in Woman of the Hour. Kendrick blends them so well they feel natural despite their incongruity. There is the story of a serial killer who attacks women he dates, and the story of an aspiring actress who appears on The Dating Game on the same episode the same serial killer also happens to appear on. 

The first thread starts to lay out the genre cliches closely before subverting them to focus attention away from the violence suffered by the victims and, by the climax, on the way a survivor brings the killer to justice. The second is almost a blip in the story, one that is rather sensational due to the television aspect but it is used so cleverly to highlight so many of the little ways pop culture, dating culture, gender roles, and polite society, subject women to violence structurally. 

Kendrick uses her own on screen persona to effectively centre her character instead of centring the killer. She is smart and charming and exasperated. Her moment is how the film is built yet it is only a small moment in a series of women's lives that were lost due to the blindspots we have. The moment is also just a small part of her experience. Like most heterosexual women she has suffered much through her interactions with potential suiters and her experience saves her. She recognizes threats, whether they be small or deadly. She narrowly misses becoming another victim partially through luck and partially through her instincts built developed from her lived experience. 

Woman of the Hour is fascinating for how well it uses the prescribed tools of a rather exploitative genre to challenge that exploitation and transform it into another purpose. 

Woman of the Hour

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Daniel Zovatto, Nicolette Robinson, Tony Hale

Director: Anna Kendrick

Writer: Ian McDonald