La donna più odiata d'America

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.

Unfortunately this movie is at best only mediocre, at worst a poor job of telling a fascinating story. The actress Melissa Leo is absolutely MISCAST as Murray-O'Hair and suffers through the part unable to capture the essence of a complicated, disturbed, and controversial woman. I looked forward to this movie but watch it with disappointment. I wish a more thorough detailed story could have been told about Madalyn Murray-O'Hair. Better than nothing but that's not saying much!

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.

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.

The directors seemed to enjoy making this movie, for sensational reality that was this woman's life, and sad death; and was probably highly profitable in certain markets. But as a stranger to the story, I could tell straightaway this can't have been all there was to her, as to take up such a fight was more than just hubris. And this movie reeks of the directors' hubris. All points to everyone else that gave stellar quality to a poor artistic effort.