Boston, early 1960s. Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley), a young journalist at Record American, establishes a link between several sordid feminicides and begins an unprecedented investigation with her colleague Jean Cole (Carrie Coon).
Inspired by real events - 13 murders committed between 1962 and 1964 by Albert DeSalvo, nicknamed "the Boston Strangler" - this thriller by Matt Ruskin (
Crown Heights
) is an excellent "true crime" ("criminal film") doubled with an unvarnished portrayal of 1960s America, more patriarchal than progressive, seen through the prism of women, journalists, victims, their friends, their mothers, Bostonians.
"I wanted to develop the story around their point of view, remarks the director, so as to deliver a new interpretation and paint a gallery of varied portraits, such as the two journalists, models of tenacity in an era still refractory to their emancipation…”
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Inspired by real events
The result is a brutal but sensitive work, which plays with its references to Richard Fleischer's so masculine classic (released in 1968) to better mark the indisputable character of its postulate.
The Boston Strangler
is a female film carried by two magnificent actresses in the face of a police reluctant to give these murders the importance they deserve, bosses unwilling to give them the confidence they deserve and husbands rather helping but basically unwilling to let them
"escape"
on the grounds that they are in great danger.
Fleischer's film, starring stunning Tony Curtis as the killer, took a very raw, yet very human look at crime.
Ruskin's, no less dark, equally effective, focuses on its heroines.
“Getting attached to a character who actually existed is one thing.
Attaching oneself to such an important figure in the history of the emancipation of women in the United States is quite another
,” comments Keira Knightley.
An America more patriarchal than progressive
The actress, all in nuance, excels in restoring the fight waged by her character to convince her editor-in-chief to open an investigation, to obtain some confidence from the police officers, to endure the horror of a crime scene, to assume the label of bad wife or bad mother, to be up to it, finally to be legitimate.
His repeated face-to-face meetings with Carrie Coon, alias Jean Cole, are exceptional.
“Among the many reasons why I accepted this role, there is Carrie Coon, of which I know and of which I admire the capacity to incarnate with perfection any role”
, adds the actress.
The pair works wonderfully.
The male characters are not despised or belittled because of the director's bias.
The aspect of thriller is mastered.
The image is magnificent.
Psychosis gradually sets in in Boston.
The viewer is hooked.
A committed film coupled with excellent entertainment.
