ReCenseo

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.