I
am of the opinion that when it comes to creating an engaging film the basic
premise is one of the least important factors. This sounds a little
contradictory, but when you have a good writer, talented actors, and a creative
crew, “kids in detention getting to know each other” can become The
Breakfast Club and “twelve people have jury duty and talk all day” can
become 12 Angry Men. This is one of the reasons it is so
disappointing for the opposite to happen: A movie being boring despite having
an interesting premise. This describes Boston Strangler to a
t, because despite its real-life story of murder and professional empowerment,
decent acting, and adequate script, the film is ultimately just as boring and
unengaging as the name implies.
Movies based on true stories can be a
little tricky, as life is often more mundane than fiction, but you also
shouldn’t go too far when spicing up the truth for an audience looking to be
entertained. I don’t know much about the actual story of the Boston Strangler,
but I imagine this film is pretty true to what actually happened, as any
possible spicing up blends in so perfectly with the blandness of the rest of
the movie that it all appears as one plausible yet tedious blob. Boston
Strangler may be based on a true story, but there is nothing in it
that has not been done more interestingly in other films, be they completely
fictional ones or other partial adaptations of events that actually happened.
This actually led me to wish there were clearer liberties taken in the name of
audience engagement, something I don’t usually do-- anything to make the
experience more interesting.
Outside of the humdrum familiarity of
the plot (murder happens, investigation happens, another murder happens, repeat
until “where are they now” text pops up right before the end credits) and
characters (Keira Knightley tries to break into investigative reporting in a
man’s world, gets obsessed with her work, her marriage suffers as a result), I
am not entirely sure why Boston Strangler was so unmotivating
to me, as all of its separate parts are somehow much more than its sum. The
acting is good, and not once did I find Keira Knightley’s American accent silly
or unnatural. The script is believable, the cinematography occasionally
ambitious if sometimes a little distracting. I guess there was music, although
that might have just been me humming to myself as I tried to keep my mind from
wandering. Overall there just isn’t anything exceptional about any of it; I’m
even having a difficult time writing this review, because though I
watched Boston Strangler less than twenty-four hours ago I’ve
already forgotten nearly everything about it, and the things I do remember may
or may not actually be memories of things that happened in much more engaging
true crime movies like Zodiac.
Needless to say, I’d go ahead and
skip this one unless you are a true crime fanatic with a lot of time on your
hands.
Boston Strangler is
now available on Hulu.
This review was first published in The
Keizertimes on April 28th, 2023. Visit at www.keizertimes.com/
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