Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
The Most Hated Woman in America, Netflix‘s latest original flick, hits the streaming platform today, and it features Melissa Leo as renowned atheist activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair. Also starring Vincent Kartheiser, Josh Lucas, Adam Scott, Michael Chernus, and Juno Temple, the biopic is directed and co-written by Tommy O’Haver (An American Crime, Ella Enchanted). It’s a story that’s almost too insane to be true; O’Hair’s efforts led to the Supreme Court ruling that banned official Bible readings in public schools, her atheist son went on to become a popular evangelist we still know today, and she eventually met her end when a disgruntled former employee kidnapped and murder her, her younger son, and her granddaughter. The story is ripped from the headlines, and the film treats it as such: many of the transitions and moments of exposition in the film rely on tabloid moments.
The film begins where Madalyn ends; an empty house in Austin, breakfast plates left unfinished, coffee still brewing. One of O’Hair’s faithful followers (Brandon Mychal Smith) finds the house in disarray, and two confused dachshunds left alone. In San Antonio, three hooded, restrained individuals wonder where they are. As their captors come in and check their restraints, the middle hooded figure can’t help but hurl every insult she can think of at them. “DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!” She yells. And now, we do. She’s Madalyn Murray O’Hair, and the two fellow hostages are her son Garth (Chernus) and granddaughter Robin (Temple). While we start in 1995 – and this is where most of the film lives – we jump back to 1955 Baltimore, where religious freedom crusader O’Hair got her start.
O’Hair is apparently a massive disappointment to her religious father, as she has one son, Bill, out of wedlock, and is pregnant with another (Garth). She starts Bill’s non-conformity early when they protest the racist owners of a nearby restaurant, and she really gets her start a few years later when she discovers that Bill is forced to participate in “Morning Devotionals” at school (led by a hilarious, under-utilized Anna Camp). She fights hard and eventually wins by Supreme Court ruling, and thus begins her lifelong efforts and the founding of American Atheists. We receive snippets of different years, television appearances, and tumultuous relations between O’Hair and her son Bill (played by Vincent Kartheiser as an adult), but always end up back in the hostage-housing hotel room. Josh Lucas stars as kidnapper, murderer, and former American Atheists employee David Roland Waters, and he’s at his best when he’s at his craziest. Adam Scott, sporting his Big Little Lies beard, is also underused as a spunky journalist with an editor who won’t give him a shot at uncovering the truth behind the disappearance.
The film employs a little Forrest Gump magic by making it appear as though Leo’s O’Hair is on Johnny Carson and other television programs, and while it can definitely look silly, it’s still fun. Kartheiser does his best with what he’s given as the young atheist-turned raging alcoholic-turned prominent estranged from his family evangelist, but he evidently reads as Pete Campbell in wigs and age make-up. Leo’s occasional bad wigs unfortunately make it easy to be removed from the drama of the film at times, but despite the fact that she bears little resemblance to the real O’Hair, her rage and determination are what drive everything home. As a whole, the film thrives during quieter mother-son moments between the two, and during Leo’s most incendiary, spitting, raging moments.
While certainly set up to be a home run with its cast and director, the film never really finds its own voice. Much like the fate of a slew of biopics before it, the tonal inconsistency – it shifts between black comedy to melodramatic and mysterious – never allows it to get a grip on the story being told. Leo is a force (as always), however, and her performance is just enough to make The Most Hated Woman in America worth a watch.
