‘Boston Strangler’: Keira Knightley puts in the work as reporter on the trail of a killer

Keira Knightley stars in “Boston Strangler” as Loretta McLaughlin, a reporter looking into connections between the slayings of several women. (HULU)

From the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies to “King Arthur,” from “Pride and Prejudice” to “Atonement,” from “Silk” to “The Duchess,” from “Anna Karenina” to “Colette,” Keira Knightley has made a brilliant career forged largely from period-piece costume dramas — and Knightley travels back in time once again, albeit in quite different fashion, in the sobering and gripping crime drama “Boston Strangler.” In the process, she delivers one of my favorite Keira Knightley performances of all time.

Masking her British accent in impressive fashion, Knightley disappears into the role of the real-life Boston newspaper reporter Loretta McLaughlin, a young and ambitious and doggedly determined journalist who teamed up with the more experienced, world-weary Jean Cole (the magnificent Carrie Coon) to break story after story as they investigated the case of the Boston Strangler, the killer who murdered at least 11 women in the Boston area in the early 1960s.