Boston Strangler (2023) Dir: Matt Ruskin
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From writer and difector Matt Ruskin, this crime thriller was based on the very real crimes of the Boston Strangler, that took place during the early 1960s. True crime is always a tentative subject to address in film and television, so I was intrigued to see how Ruskin's depiction would be.
The first thing to say, is that the film didn't do anything particularly new, thematically or visually, but it did at least do most of what it did relatively well.
The story, of course, is constrained to the true events, but was inevitably dramatised and angled to present Ruskin's view of the events. I think he told the story of the case and the women who investigated it pretty well, but again, nothing about the way he did it felt new.
The pacing was, at times, terribly slow, which had the unfortunate impact of making this feel a lot more dull than it really was. This may be an unfair comparison, but the film felt too much like it was trying to be like David Fincher's 'Zodiac'.
Kiera Knightley led a really solid cast, and while I enjoyed her performance, she did begin to bore me just a little. I just felt as though there was a little substance lacking in the writing of her character, which admittedly they tried to give through a minor subplot, which I didn't get drawn in by at all. Furthermore, her real accent was desperate to come out, which was rather distracting.
I actually preferred the performance of the lead supporting actor; Carrie Coon. She had so much more depth in her performance. Coon benefitted from better writing in fairness, but regardless, I felt she stole the film.
Chris Cooper and Alessandro Nivola provided reasonably strong supporting displays, although I wouldn't say either of them blew me away or anything. I also feel that the trio of Rory Cochrane, David Dastmalchian and Morgan Spector warrant mentions for their notable, if smaller, supporting roles.
Overall, I found myself disappointed by this crime thriller, more so because it could have been so much more than it ended up being. Instead, it stuck to a very safe road as far as the storytelling and filmmaking techniques were concerned, which ultimately made for a middling, slightly dull, thriller.
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