Woodley delivers one of the most compelling performances of her career. Eleanor is a subversion of the "rookie cop" trope. She isn't wide-eyed and optimistic; she is cynical, beaten down by life, and harbors a dark history of her own. She is a survivor of a traumatic past involving a religious cult, which gives her a unique—almost uncomfortably intimate—understanding of the killer's mindset. Woodley plays her with a brittle intensity. She rarely smiles, she struggles with authority, and she is physically unassuming, yet she possesses a raw intelligence that the bureaucratic FBI lacks.
The film also critiques the true-crime industrial complex. In one scene, a news producer tries to buy the killer’s manifesto. In another, Eleanor watches a YouTube video essayist romanticize Richard as a “dark genius.” She turns it off in disgust. The film’s message is clear: the act of “catching” a killer is already a form of entertainment, and that entertainment begets more killers. To Catch a Killer -2023-2023