Woman of the Hour

Movies like this one are why I try my best to avoid previews, reviews, and promotional material before seeing anything. Going into Woman of the Hour cold, based solely on a single image of Anna Kendrick on the old '70s Dating Game set, and hearing that her directorial debut was a pretty good movie, I had no idea what this picture was about. As it started, I was somewhat resistant. Many aspects of the film—its seemingly disconnected storylines, odd tonal shifts, on-the-nose thematic dialogue, some period anachronisms, and a wanna-be actor protagonist played by an actor making their directorial debut—keep the viewer (at least this viewer) at a significant remove from the characters. But everything comes together beautifully by the midpoint, and when this film reaches its powerful conclusion, all that had been preventing me from fully engaging was long forgotten.

It was great to slowly discover what this story was and what this movie was doing. Kendrick (The Twilight films, the Pitch Perfect films, Up in the Air, and Joe Swanberg mumblecore movies like Hannah Takes the Stairs, Digging for Fire, and the wonderful Drinking Buddies) brings a self-assured hand to Ian McDonald's sharp screenplay, which spent some time featured on the Black List. In the lead role of Date Game contestant Sheryl Bradshaw, Kendrick is a little too contemporary in her speech, mannerisms, and attitudes to fully convince us she's a young wannabe actress living in 1978 LA, but by the time the movie reaches its climax, her choices all make sense.