IR Film Review: BOSTON STRANGLER [Hulu]
The story of the Boston Strangler is a story that is at the fringes of American consciousness but a term still people recognize. Like "She Said" last fall with different focal points, similar pedigree but an underlying similarity, "Boston Strangler", premiering on Hulu, follows two real life women battling against perception, motivation and masculine mansplaining as they pursue the truth. The basis is set in the early 60s around Loretta McLaughlin (a mother of 3 who works the lifestyle desk at the Record American). The murders of older and then young women that are not being investigated motivates her into action despite the politics and the sexism backing her up. Kiera Knightley takes on an American accent and this is the best we have seen her in a while. While not untoward, there is something when you take away her English mannerisms and accent (which with her can sometimes grate). She disappears into the role more which makes this progression, despite the plot heavy nature, still character driven.
Writer/Director Matt Ruskin does an admirable job with keeping the film above board, not really gory but just atmospheric enough to be accessible with a great cast. The film again is too niche (at this point in the theatrical process) to really play in cinemas (though its dark shadows ala "Se7en" might look good on the big screen). Carrie Coon, also a very underrated actress, is the perfect ally and foil at times to Knightley as Jean Cole. She is that mentor that can both enrage and motivate Loretta because she knows how to the rules need to be played even as Loretta gets mad. The film shows the push and pulls of home and work for women at that time creating a sense of understanding without prosthelitizing. David Dastmalchian, whom this reviewer mistook for Morgan Spector (playing Knightley's understanding but later agitated husband) plays Albert DeSalvo, a suspect in the slayings. The structure expands to the Michigan area with some other murders that seem connected. The film does very well of pulling all these strands together with the details and still keeping the tension up of the political context without losing the main strand of the women's fight to get the truth.
Add to this Alessandro Nivola as a detective (which is an interesting sly side play performance from his character in "Amsterdam") and Chris Cooper (whom we havent seen in a while) as a grizzled but effective editor at the Record American. Some would say that this could have been done in series form but there is something cool about open and closed movies that leave you thinking. "The Many Saints Of Newark" is a good example of this (thanks to the fantastic performance by Nivola in that one), "Boiston Strangler" is effective, digestable but also keeps the thoughts of the plot maintained with a host of great performance including a sure steady hand of Knightley in the lead with Coon backing her up. B+
By Tim Wassberg
