Boston Strangler

Available on Disney Plus

Matt Ruskin’s film makes for a mostly fateful retelling of how two female journalists, Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole, broke the chilling story of the Boston Strangler, who murdered 13 women in the early 1960s.

The screenplay, also written by Ruskin, is mostly centred on McLaughlin, and for that the director is rewarded with an impressively stoic performance from Keira Knightley, who offers an ample reminder of her credentials as a leading lady. Carrie Coon is less fortunate with the role of the aforementioned Cole, with her character feeling underdeveloped for the most part.

Indeed, Boston Strangler fails to make the most of an impressive supporting cast that also includes the always impressive Chris Cooper and David Dastmalchian, with the film generally struggling to emerge from the shadow of narratively similar, but altogether more impressive, films such as Se7en and Zodiac.

Despite this, the true story at the heart of this picture provides a sad yet timely reminder of the everyday fear that pervades the female experience, while the Boston police force’s botched attempt to bring the killer(s) to justice reinforces the notion that the authorities are not inherently geared towards protecting the women they are supposed to serve.

Given the UK government’s damning recent report of the institutional failings within the Met Police, it would seem that not much has changed since, which grants films such as Boston Strangler a depressing relevance they perhaps would otherwise not possess.