Rating: R | Runtime: 112 minutes
Release Date: March 17th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: 20th Century Studios / Hulu
Director(s): Matt Ruskin
Writer(s): Matt Ruskin

It’s crazy to think your whole life can turn on a chance encounter.

As someone unversed in Boston Strangler lore, it was nice of writer/director Matt Ruskin to begin things in Ann Arbor, MI. By letting the first murder he shows us be somewhere else before rewinding three years to bring us to Boston, he prepares us for the chaos that ensues as far as an overworked and poorly managed police force is concerned.

Because while Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley) and Jean Cole (Carrie Coon) continue to find leads for each subsequent murder (five elderly women shifting to eight younger ones), Commissioner McNamara (Bill Camp) refuses to acknowledge his ineptitude. So, we can’t ever believe any single solution if every possible solution seems plausibly correct. Eventually, the idea that there was only one killer becomes the most far-fetched assumption of them all.

It’s a tough story to tell as a result. You can’t commit to focusing on the murderer or the victims. You can’t commit to focusing on the police. In the end, eleven of the twelve murders remain unsolved today. The only through-line then is the reporter who used to collect crime clippings from other newspapers as a means of showing her boss (Chris Cooper’s Jack Maclaine) that his “crack” team wasn’t up to the task.

Loretta happens to see a potential connection between three homicides, deftly maneuvers her way through their respective cases to confirm (each was strangled and left with a knotted scarf around her neck), and finally convinces the naysayers that her story has legs. Add Jean for legitimacy, Detective Conley (Alessandro Nivola) for off-the-record info sharing, and frustrated cops from neighboring precincts and other states who are unable to get Boston PD to call them back and the puzzle pieces begin to fall in place.

The whole is a solid if nondescript true crime thriller looking to find the lightning in a bottle of other newsroom films such as Zodiac or Spotlight. It might not reach those heights due in part to the continued mystery surrounding the murder spree, but it maintains intrigue thanks to an effectively determined Knightley. We’re on her side throughout, even as the mounting stakes take a sledgehammer to her marriage (Morgan Spector’s James is a supportive husband … until he’s not).

I would have liked more time spent on that effect since those domestic struggles are mostly pushed to the background as hollow tension, but Knightley’s performance embodies the psychological cost regardless. Ruskin is balancing her narrative with the case as best he can until the latter renders the former moot. Some of the more nuanced drama feels incomplete as a result, but not enough to derail the rest.

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(L-R): Keira Knightley as Loretta McLaughlin and Carrie Coon as Jean Cole in 20th Century Studios’ BOSTON STRANGLER, exclusively on Hulu. Photo by Claire Folger. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.