She
is a vulnerable young woman with a cache of drugs hidden in her Northern
Ireland council estate flat. She is not blind, like Audrey Hepburn in Wait
Until Dark. She is a young widow with two young children and no money to
speak. That means her prospects for survival (short-term and long-term) are probably
much worse in this class-conscious thriller. Living day-to-day was already a
struggle for Sarah before she found herself in the middle of a drug score
gone-wrong in Abner Pastoll’s A Good Woman is Hard to Find, which releases
on VOD this Friday.
Sarah
and her husband Stephen were never rich, but they got by before he was
murdered. Their little boy Ben witnessed the attack, but the trauma struck him
mute. Sarah’s stern mother offers cold comfort, so it is largely her against
the world. The cops are not even investigating Stephen’s death because of his
criminal record, so when the lowlife Tito literally bursts into her flat and
life, she feels she has nowhere to turn.
Tito
managed to rob a shipment of illicit white powder from Leo Miller’s drug
syndicate. In addition to being a pedantic grammarian, Miller is vicious when
crossed. That is why the sleazy Tito wants to use her flat as his stash house.
His presence is definitely a threat to her children’s safety, but Miller and
his associates are even more dangerous.
Arguably,
Good Woman is street-smart and naturalistic to a fault, with the social realism
occasionally threatening to overwhelm the thriller elements. Still, when
Pastoll (who previously helmed Road Games) lets things get violent, the
blood splatters and pools quite spectacularly.
Regardless,
Sarah Bolger is impressively fierce as her namesake. She makes the pendulum
swing from beaten-down, freaked-out victim to urban angel of vengeance look
natural and believable. Even her ultimate empowerment is hard-earned and
credible. Edward Hogg is also flamboyantly menacing as the sociopathic Miller.
However, Andrew Simpson makes a rather nondescript thug as Tito.
Good
Woman is
sometimes a tough watch, but it is a quality film. Ronan Blaney’s screenplay is
a little pat, but there is nothing simple about Bolger’s portrayal of the deeply
human central character. Recommended for fans of gritty crime thrillers, A
Good Woman is Hard to Find hits VOD platforms this Friday (5/8), including
iTunes.
