A GOOD WOMAN IS HARD TO FIND

UK/Belgium, 2019, 98 minutes, Colour.

Sarah Bolger, Edward Hogg, Andrew Simpson, Jane Brennan, Rudy Doherty, Macie McCauley..

Directed by Abner Pastoll.

This is a small budget revenge film made in 14 days filming in Ireland and Belgium. It played in a number of festivals, many of them with an emphasis on horror, and won awards. It can be said that while there are two gruesome sequences, this is more of a revenge drama rather than a horror film.

The film opens with the central character, Sarah (Sarah Bolger) covered in blood, transfixed, then showering – leading to flashback drama. The film captures the atmosphere of the Irish city, a widow with her two young children, ordinary life, going to the supermarket, taking her son who does not speak to a counsellor, clashes with hard mother, memories of her husband the murdered and no results from the police, and the implication that he was a drug dealer because of the manner and place of his death.

While there are many scenes of family life and Sarah’s tenderness with the children, especially reading the bedtime stories, she passes a young man, hooded, in the street and the camera then follows him. He is a young dealer, observes local deals from a car in the street, steals a car, crashes it into the dealer’s car, steals the drugs from their boot, escaping, and coming into Sarah’s house.

There is tension in his entry, for Sarah, for the children. He explains himself and tells her that he will return, leaving the drugs in the cupboard under the bath. Then he gives her commission money for holding the drugs which she does not want. Ultimately, he terrorises her, especially after the little boy finds the drugs, plays with them, drugs over his face, Sarah desperately washing them off. The young man makes sexual advances, Sarah warding off, hitting him with a vibrator, stabbing him.

The film then changes tone, Sarah deciding to dismember and dispose of the body, the first of the very gruesome scenes and the effect of working with saw and axe. But, she disposes of the body parts in a variety of rubbish bins in the neighbourhood. Ultimately, the chief drug dealer works out where the young man would escape with the drugs, intrudes into the house, threatens Sarah – and, in the second gruesome scene, she goes to the office of the dealer, produces the young man’s head, concealing a gun, a shootout, leaving everything to the police, and no trace of her presence.

The film is well written, well acted, an effective revenge drama where audiences identify strongly with the person taking revenge.

1. The title? With reference to Sarah? Her story? Ironic tone in the title?
2. The Irish settings? The city, overviews, the streets and homes, the parks, supermarkets, clubs and drug dealing headquarters? The musical score?
3. The opening, Sarah, blood on her, the shower? An hour of flashback building up her character and story? The rest of the film and revenge?
4. Sarah, her marriage to Stephen, his being murdered, implication that he was a drug dealer, their two children, Ben, his age, witnessing the murder, unable to speak (and the sequence with the counsellor explaining the suppression of the memories and inability to speak), Lucy, older, her vitality? Sarah as a devoted mother, reading the children’s stories, the meals, teaching them to eat spaghetti…? The episode in the supermarket, then taking the chocolate, the supervisor and his eyeing her, to pay the costs?
5. Sarah, making ends meet, the scene with the vibrator and the battery, the discussions with her mother, the severity of her mother’s attitudes, condemning Stephen, concerned about the children, concerned about Sarah’s health, the fact that the marriage prevented Sarah’s possibilities in life? Her taking care of the children, the confrontations, Sarah telling her mother off, the mother wanting an apology, the mother later telling the story of her own marriage, the death of her husband, the reconciliation? Acknowledging that Sarah had experienced true love?
6. Sarah in the street, Tito passing by, the camera focus on Tito? Age, his roommates (and the drug dealers’ later visit, interrogation, torture and bashing)? Observing the drug dealers in their car? His stealing the car, crashing it, stealing the drugs from the boot? Escaping, going into Sarah’s house, confronting her, hiding the drugs under the bath, leaving?
7. The effect on Sarah, fear, his continued visits, explanation of his name, buying the groceries, giving her a cut of the money, her refusal? Ben discovering the drugs, playing with them, the drugs over his face, Sarah desperately washing him? The later visits, breaking the window in the door, the sexual attack, her hitting him with the vibrator, stabbing him, his death? The police arriving, complaints about noise, the suspicions of her because of her husband? (And her visiting the police and their brushing off with no information?)
8. Sarah, the decision about the body, sending the children to her mother, buying the axe in the saw, the initial dismembering, the blood, her cutting up Tito, in the bags, delivering them to the variety of rubbish bins? Carrying on as normal, the visit to the counsellor and her being upset?
9. The drug dealer, his headquarters, his voice, attitude, the henchmen, working out about Tito, speculation as to where the car was parked, suspicions about Sarah? Sarah’s children in the street, the dealer and his having bashed the garbage collector? Ben identifying him as the killer?
10. Sarah reading the stories, Lucy filling in the gaps, Ben speaking a word?
11. The dealer, confronting Sarah, demanding to know where Tito was? Her promise to come in an hour? Make up, clothes, into the club, her bag, confronting the dealer, producing Tito’s head, their laughing, Sarah removing the gun from Tito’s head, the shootings? Her leaving, getting rid of the head, returning home?
12. No trace of Tito, leaving the deaths of the dealers for the police, no suspicions on her?
13. Going to the supermarket, the supervisor, intrusive, Ben and the chocolate, Sarah’s threat to report the supervisor as exposing himself? Her satisfaction? And the glimpse of her looking into the camera after the final credits?