The Most Hated Woman in America

This is a prime example of lazy screen writing. There are several things that the movie got wrong compared to the actual events. Plus, it's like they took the script directly from O'Hairs Wikipedia page or a quick google search. It offers nothing new to the story. Hopefully someone will redo it the right way, because it had so much potential.

With poor acting and an extremely confusing script, the most hated woman in the United States tells the story of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, president and founder of the American atheist association, focused on her kidnapping in 1995. The ill-executed direction of the film portrays in a poorly planned manner the events preceding and explaining the abduction as well as the period in captivity the atheist activist and his family. When finished watching the film, the spectator can not visualize in detail neither the life of Madalyn nor his kidnapping. Badly made scenes of action, weak dialogues and a dubious photograph characterize this film that, unfortunately, does not live up to the importance of the figure of Madalyn and its history.

This film tells the story of an activist who goes missing.

I haven't heard of this real life story before, so I find the story intriguing and engaging. It is quite sad that her son didn't care about her disappearance at all. It is also sad that she seems to have alienated everyone around her, when all she has done is to speak her mind.

Melissa Leo is a great actress. Madalyn Murray O'Hair, as presented here, was not a likable person. Coming from the fifties as she did, the ugliness she was subjected to, just as with the civil rights movement, would tend to make anyone re-act like a snarling badger. She was the point of the spear in the fight against the religious tyranny that is, and has always been, right around the corner. The right to say: "I don't believe it and you can't make me." was fought for and should not be taken for granted. A very American story in every detail. In the beginning, I got the feeling it was going to have a 'Coenesque' flavor to it. If the same thought occurs to you, dismiss it. It's a dramatized bio rearranged to feel like a thriller.

Of course that's her real name and not the one of the "character" (real life person) she portrays, but it's fitting nevertheless. She won't take anything from anybody, no matter what the point is. And she will stand up for something when others just idly stand by and maybe even just watch what is happening.

We go through a lot of history of what happened to this person and how she became a fighter and an atheist. The last fact alone may make her a bad apple for some and put her in a corner she can't recover from. But you know there is a reason for this title of hers (and the movie). Performance is grand and it's really a gripping story, jumping back and forth in time. It works and while not many will be completely satisfied with the work/movie itself, it's really something good, with flaws and all.