Boston Strangler: Film Review
A few films have been made about the Boston Strangler over the years, but this one focuses on the women who helped crack the case.
The true crime drama, set in Boston in the 1960s, stars Keira Knightley as Loretta McLoughlin, a journalist relegated to the lifestyle desk at The Record American newspaper with most of the other women on staff. Loretta constantly asks to be given a serious story but her efforts are always shut down. That’s until she notices articles about three women who had been murdered in the same way in close succession – her editor Jack (Chris Cooper) allows her to investigate the crimes in her own time.
Once it becomes clear she has unearthed a serial killer, seasoned reporter Jean Cole (Carrie Coon) is assigned to help her with the coverage and unmask the strangler. Naturally, Loretta, as a new female reporter on the beat, struggles to command respect from the police, in court and at crime scenes. She is accused of being incapable of covering such a big story, flirting to get information from cops and being a bad mother. The examination of the sexism and misogyny she faced was the most interesting aspect of the movie to me.
The pursuit of the strangler is intriguing too (especially if you don’t know who did it) but the story often feels like a generic crime movie. It hits familiar beats and doesn’t offer much we haven’t seen before. The story is rather flat and I never felt super gripped or captivated by it. I couldn’t help but wonder if writer/director Matt Ruskin was inspired by David Fincher‘s Zodiac as there are similarities in the storytelling.
Knightley, using a standard American rather than Boston accent, does well as the determined journalist who becomes consumed by the investigation. It takes over her life and she can’t let it go. She has an interesting dynamic with Coon as her opposite – the experienced Jean is cool, calm and composed and nothing seems to faze her. While the work is important to her, she can detach from it.
Alessandro Nivola was a great addition as Detective Conley, a weary cop Loretta hounds for information, Cooper added value as the newspaper editor and David Dastmalchian was his usual creepy self as one of the suspects.
Boston Strangler would have possibly been a thrilling movie if it had been released ten years ago, but true crime has become such a phenomenon nowadays that a straightforward, paint-by-numbers narrative like this just doesn’t cut the mustard.
On Disney+ from Friday 17th March