Is it just me? Or does Netflix seem like it's gradually transforming into the new Lifetime TV network? With so many female-centered murder mysteries and true crime documentary series, I'm wondering where this constant interest in death will lead us.
Not to be left out of the growing homicide trend, Hulu recently released the investigative drama Boston Strangler written and directed by Matt Ruskin (who is most known for writing and directing the crime/reversed justice film, Crown Heights from 2017).
Boston Strangler is a somber subdued story of a real-life serial killer who murdered a number of women in the capitol city of Massachusetts between 1962 and 1964. This real-life story was first adapted into the 1968 film, The Boston Strangler, a psychological police procedural about how investigators found their suspect and how the man murdered his victims.
The Boston Strangler is an interesting film featuring a raw performance by Tony Curtis (Some Like It Hot, 1959) and an inventive editing style that dissects the screen into separate squares showing the audience differing, and simultaneous, perspectives.
This new film tells a story of the same murders but from the different perspective of two female journalists who push through the sexism of the 1960s and the stresses of motherhood to report the latest discoveries of these mounting dead bodies. These journalists are based on real women Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole who wrote for the Boston Record American newspaper and who first connected the murders. Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game, 2014) and Carrie Coon (Ghostbusters: Afterlife, 2021) play their roles with full concentration from their faces to their accents.
If I had to choose one word to describe this film, it would be steady. The emotional tone remains focused, and the dialogue is written with a simplified, grounded realism. So because of this, Boston Strangler remains believable, mature and stark. But it also remains light on excitement, intensity and crescendos.
You know when you're visiting someone in the hospital, and they're connected to an EKG monitor? The EKG monitor tracks the patient's heartbeat with the line moving up, down, and across the monitor screen. That's like many films or dynamic stories with peaks and valleys. Moments of thrills and moments of calm.
Boston Strangler doesn't have any of that, so it feels like an EKG monitor showing just a single, flat, straight line. That doesn't mean this film is bad or boring.
It does an admirable job portraying the lives of two determined, smart women who pushed the boundaries of investigative journalism during the 1960s. The film just doesn't fulfill its possibilities of being a more nuanced or lively version to get more viewers to watch it.
