Boston Strangler

The latest in a long line of media adaptations about one of the darkest eras in Bostonian history, Matt Ruskin’s Boston Strangler attempts to repurpose the prolific serial killer and shine a light on the female investigators who broke the story for a more inclusive modern audience. Unfortunately, while Ruskin’s project establishes and sufficiently expands upon this feminist theme, the rest of the film lacks the ambiance and passion for inducting Boston Strangler into the same tier as superior true-crime thrillers Zodiac or The Vanishing, for example.

Inspired by the actual serial killings that plagued Greater Boston during the mid-’60s, Boston Strangler explores the inspirational investigative journalism spearheaded by Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole that unraveled the story, played by Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon, respectively. Ruskin’s film appears to be the most prominent Strangler adaptation to focus on the women leading the efforts to capture the menacing murderer instead of the killer himself. When the movie begins, McLaughlin writes for the Style section of the Record American newspaper, operated exclusively by women. She is ambitious and wants to write meaningful news for the paper; she eventually catches onto a string of strangling’s that seem connected and then writes the article that busts the investigation wide open, despite the best efforts of her male colleagues to stop her.

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The movie portrays McLaughlin’s relentless initiative well, cutting between her investigating prowess and the toll it takes on her family, particularly her husband James (Morgan Spector). Their relationship unravels parallel to McLaughlin’s near-obsession with discovering the aptly-named Boston Strangler—as McLaughlin digs deeper, her marriage becomes increasingly strained. On the other hand, her friendship with Cole evolves, and McLaughlin’s self-imposed preservation of the women of Boston grows more profound. Even though it feels like McLaughlin’s primary focus is making headlines, toward the end of the film, her cause comes off as just.

There is a side plot that examines the Boston Police Department’s ineptitude in handling the case, which facilitates the film’s twists and turns. These elements may reflect the reality of the Boston Strangler case, and Ruskin successfully creates some intrigue between various red herrings and the danger posed to McLaughlin and Cole. Still, too much is going on, and the film requires more focus. Meanwhile, there is a shocking lack of suspense that a counterpart like Zodiac features in spades, which sadly causes Boston Strangler’s near-2-hour runtime to feel like a slog. Successive scenes follow a procedural process, and Ruskin’s attempts to introduce some stakes into McLaughlin and Cole’s investigation lead to nothing of real value. Instead, they merely fizzle out and into the following stale conversation.

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