Byline of fire
'Boston Strangler' a winning account of infamous killings
Set in the early 1960s, “Boston Strangler” tells the dark, relevant and resonant tale of a Boston Record American lifestyle reporter named Loretta McLaughlin (Englishwoman Keira Knightley), who uncovers a link between the murders of three women in the Boston area and insists on covering the case. McLaughlin insists in spite of the extreme reluctance of her crusty, irascible editor-in-chief Jack Maclaine (Kingston resident Chris Cooper), whose fears about putting a woman on the story turn into the realization that such a move might boost circulation. Some crazed killer is targeting older women who live alone. The killer strangles the victims and leaves stockings tied round their necks in a neat doublehitch knot.
As a woman reporter covering a grisly murder case, McLaughlin is a pioneer. Part of her problem is the lack of respect of her peers and the police, although the fact that she is attractive can work in her favor. Another problem is Boston’s complicated police arrangement. A murder in nearby Cambridge is the purview of an entirely different police department. Loretta is justly concerned that some clues and leads have been misplaced or overlooked.
Eventually, Loretta, who dubs the killer “the Mad Strangler” and “the Phantom,” before settling on the iconic “Boston Strangler,” is allied with more experienced reporter Jean Cole (Carrie Coon). The two form a quick bond and sit next to each other in the smoky newsroom, where reporters were allowed to drink.
When Loretta and Jean aren’t in the newsroom, they might be found in J.J. Foley’s Cafe on E. Berkeley Street, where reporters and local off-duty police mingle. Loretta, who attended Boston University on a scholarship, has an understanding husband named James (Morgan Spector, “The Gilded Age”) with whom she has three young children. Her work keeps her from her family. But her husband knows that she needs her work and its challenges to remain fulfilled.
This “Boston Strangler” is different in scope and theme from Richard Fleischer’s admirable, if also grim 1968 procedural “The Boston Strangler” with Henry Fonda as MA Assistant Attorney General John S. Bottomley and a surprisingly convincing and creepy Tony Curtis as Albert DeSalvo.
Writer-director Matt Ruskin of the 2017 truecrime story “Crown Heights” does a fine job of depicting Loretta’s dilemma. As a woman, she has demonstrably more compassion for the victims. She’s also a woman investigating sexually-deviant murders in provincial 1960s New England. Boston Detective Conley (Alessandro Nivola, sporting a righteous Boston accent) treats Loretta with respect, but cannot hide his personal interest in her. Eventually, someone appears to stalk Loretta, making phone calls to her home. James is furious. Loretta and Jean could be in real danger.
It was weird seeing Dwight Street, where I once lived, dressed to look like 1963. Bostonians will take note when DeSalvo says that he chose a victim based on an open parking space. The period details are impressive, especially the newsroom with its aforementioned smoke clouds and clackety typewriters. Knightley speaks in a convincingly period manner, if not specifically Bostonian. Ruskin pursues a theory about the murders presumably derived from Susan Kelly’s 1996 book “The Boston Stranglers.” Even if this muddies the waters dramatically, Knightley and Coon make a better team than the reporters in the yearend newspaper drama “She Said.” In fact, “Boston Strangler” can take a credible place beside such Boston-steeped crime tales as “Mystic River” and “The Verdict.”
(“Boston Strangler” contains violence and profanity)