narrow, ineffectual offering, which presents itself a true-crime saga of her final days and a bad-mommy soap opera more than a portrait of a complicated individual
a gripping performance from the Oscar-winner isn't enough to save a tonally awkward take on the true story of a woman taking on religion in 50s America
"The Most Hated Woman in America" makes it abundantly clear that Madalyn Murray O'Hair was a riveting human being whose story is worth telling in our messed up times, but the film never has the slightest idea of what that story might be about
