The film premiered at South by Southwest on March 14, 2017. The film was released on March 24, 2017, by Netflix.
Plot
In 1995, Madalyn Murray O'Hair is kidnapped along with her son Garth and granddaughter Robin by three men: David Waters, Gary Karr and Danny Fry. The three abductees recognize Waters.
The scene shifts to the early 1960s. Madalyn has become a single mother of two sons, Garth and the older William J. "Billy Boy" Murray Jr., and is a proud atheist, which outrages her Christian parents. Madalyn is outraged to learn that Billy is being forced to recite the Lord's Prayer in school, so she launches a campaign to ban school prayer, ultimately resulting in a Supreme Court ruling making mandatory prayer in schools illegal. She quickly becomes labeled one of the most hated figures in America. She forms the atheist advocacy group American Atheists, recruiting Garth and Billy. Billy's devotion to his mother destroys his relationship with his wife, and he becomes a bitter alcoholic after she divorces him. He eventually quits drinking and becomes a born-again Christian, causing a deep rift with Madalyn.
Madalyn begins profiting from spirited debates with a local pastor, putting the money in offshore accounts. She hires Waters to manage the American Atheists branch; he becomes her trusted ally, especially after he confides in her about having murdered someone as a young man. Eventually, Waters has a falling out with Madalyn and is fired from American Atheists. In 1995, he demands one million dollars from Madalyn, which she refuses. Waters devises the kidnapping as a way to get the money he feels she owes him. Reporter Jack Ferguson begins covering the kidnapping and questions Billy. He gets a sketch artist to draw a picture of Fry. Ferguson joins forces with Madalyn's assistant and they slowly unravel the plot.
Back at the safe house, Karr kills Robin after she refuses his sexual advances. Panicked, Waters and Karr then kill Garth and Madalyn. Finally, Karr kills Fry after forcing him to dismember the bodies. Ferguson finally catches Waters and gets him to confess to the triple murder. Waters and Karr are both arrested and tried. Closing text reports that Karr received a life sentence; Waters received 68 years but died in prison in 2003. Billy now chairs the Religious Freedom Coalition and works to return mandated prayer to public schools, and the American Atheists continues to exist.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 36% of 22 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "This lackluster look into the farcical face of The Most Hated Woman in America has some sly performances but offers little in the way of further insight."[9]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 41 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[10]
Peter Debruge of Variety gave the film a negative review, writing: "Seems to fall right where you'd expect: slightly better than your average TV movie, while not as good as your typical theatrical release."[11]
