A good woman is hard to
find
A South
African, a Belgian, and a Northern Irishman walk into a film, and the confluent
results are worthy of your attention. This may not be award-winning drama;
however, it is very well executed, to the point where some scenes are compelling
and some not so much. It’s a classic case of a film riddled in with some really
strong parts and unfortunately some that let down the whole.
When it works,
it’s different, its edge of your seat, and its surprising. When it doesn’t its
predictable, pastiche, and boring. Thankfully the former dominates for the most
part, and so we enter the world of a rough estate in Belfast, following the
struggles of a recently widowed young woman with two young children to bring up
in the wreckage of their recently murdered father.
Sarah
Bolger’s central performance pins and ebbs the narrative around corners with
nuance, even to little scenes with supermarket staff that manages to in one
moment convey the whole tone of the piece. That this woman is a victim and
everywhere she turns she is victimized. However, this film is quite simple in
that it is a straight-up revenge thriller, but done with some real sharp satire
and style.
It trips up on
its reliance with two-dimensional thugs and generic gangster motifs that we see
in literally every other film of this genre. However what makes it unique, is
the not so obvious or seen scenes of our main character encountering the
horrors of victimhood first hand, and the kaleidoscope of manifestations it
penetrates her otherwise normal attempt at a life.
The use of
music and colour adds fervour to certain violent scenes that would otherwise be
quite ordinary. Strangely the film has a lot to say about the society we live
in especially in the ‘me too’ era, but also its packaged in a bargain bin Essex
gangster packaging. So it falls at the viewer’s discretion how much to take
from it, but it’s a solid contribution to the genre that adds rather than takes
away.
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