The Bachelor

 

WOMAN OF THE HOUR (B) - Anna Kendrick lends her own star power to her directorial debut about a struggling actress who goes on "The Dating Game" in the late '70s, where she will cross paths with a serial killer.  

Kendrick takes a tight script from Ian McDonald ("Some Freaks") and creates a jangly but low-key thriller with fun period sets and costumes. She plays Sheryl, a somewhat ordinary actress who fails to grab attention at auditions where she competes with more glamorous L.A. starlets. When her agent books her on "The Dating Game," she figures she has nothing to lose.

Sheryl's story runs parallel to that of Rodney (Daniel Zovatto), a charming photographer who preys on young women. One young woman, a runaway named Amy (Autumn Best), manages to string Rodney along after surviving his initial attack, and their cat-and-mouse combat grows much more interesting than the episode of the game show that threads through the film's 95-minute running time. It's a clever move for Kendrick to cede that space to that darker understory.

The "Dating Game" episode (presented, for no good reason, as if it were airing live) is played for macabre laughs. Tony Hale is underwhelming in Jim Lange's host role. But it's fun to watch Bachelors No. 1 and 2 struggle mightily in the face of both Rodney's verbal dexterity and Sheryl going off-script by ad-libbing complex questions to the would-be beaus.

Other subplots are not so successful. Pete Holmes (HBO's "Crashing") is a drag, bookending the film as the puppy-eyed neighbor crushing on Sheryl. And there's a senseless distraction involving a woman in the show's audience (Nicolette Robinson) who recognizes Rodney from a beach party and tries in vain to get security guards and police interested in hearing her story.

But as Netflix fare goes, this one hums along like an edgy episode of "Police Woman" or "Rockford Files." Both Sheryl and Amy's stories have smart endings, and Kendrick shows an assured hand juggling those plot lines while presenting understated visuals, in an act of restraint for a first-time filmmaker.