The Most Hated Woman in America

Each year it seems that Netflix puts more and more effort into its own productions be it TV shows, comedy specials, and now feature films. Thus far the films have a similar makeup. They're small scale, feature one or two prominent actors, and run a little over ninety minutes (there are a couple of exceptions). So since critically appraisal and theatrical runs won't happen I thought I could dig through some of the streaming services' efforts including this biopic with an eye-catching title about the founder of American Atheists: Madalyn Murray O'Hair.

The movie picks up with O'Hair as her, her son, and her grand-daughter are inexplicably kidnapped. Through flashbacks, the audience learns about how O'Hair made a name for herself, founded American Atheists, and eventually made the enemies that set her down a dangerous path.

The Most Hated Woman in America is a movie that should be more interesting consider its subject matter. Whatever your belief structure, the driving forces and life one of America's most prominent atheists is an intriguing topic. Which is why it's shame that the movie only skims the surface of O'Hair's life, influence, and legacy.

Part of this has to do with the flashback structure which shows the formation of O'Hair's public persona and her kidnapping progressing at the same time. This is a somewhat tired trope for biopics, but it can work if the moments you're flipping between either relate to one another or have thematic resonance. Sadly, that's not that case here. The background biography moves at an insanely quick clip, effectively filling in gaps in the the audience's knowledge, as the kidnapping progresses in what feels like real time.

This could be somewhat forgiven if the scenes detailing O'Hair's progression from obscurity to public figure were insightful or interesting, but they lack any real punch. Instead the movie seems to view O'Hair almost comedically as she spews acid at people that disagree with her or oppose her progress. There's a multitude of unanswered questions that would make the movie far more interesting. How did O'Hair develop her views in the first place? What was her ultimate influence? The movie is desperately lacking a thematic throughline.

This is a shame because Melissa Leo, as always, is marvelous as O'Hair. Leo is easily one of Hollywood's most underappreciated character actors, she won an Oscar as Mickey's loud-mouthed mother in The Fighter, and this film really gives her a chance to flex her muscles as she vacillates from perpetual instigator to emotionally vulnerable. The rest of the cast is full of decent talent like Josh Lucas (as the lead kidnapper and Adam Scott (perfectly cast to type as an inquisitive journalist).

Still, the script lets everyone down. There's very few scenes that humanize our characters, which certainly isn't helped by the episodic nature of the flashbacks, so by the end it becomes hard for us to care about anyone or anything's that happened. Imagine someone played you the middle third of a greatest hits album followed by a back final album back and forth for ninety minutes and you've got the right idea.

Unable to live up to its intriguing title, The Most Hated Woman in America boasts solid acting but not enough narrative cohesion to recommend. Skip this one.