A Good Woman Is Hard To Find

A Good Woman Is Hard To Find, the second feature film from director Abner Pastoll is about a grieving widow named Sarah who through no endeavour of her own becomes entangled in a web of crime, murder and ultimately revenge.

The film blends a few different genres together but I would categorise it as predominately a crime drama, specifically dealing with an ordinary person getting caught up in low-level crime through a series of unfortunate circumstances. This type of topic really appeals to me and I can honestly say I was pretty satisfied with the film overall, though it is not without its issues.

What worked for me the most was actress Sarah Bolger's performance as the lead, she is excellent and is the core of why the movie works despite a few major flaws. She is really excellent in it.

It was mentioned in other interviews that this is a film which deals with feminism as a core theme, I'm not sure I agree with that. There is an undercurrent of feminist commentary but its not overly done and never feels like you're being beaten over the head with any sort of message. I believe it's more to do with how women are treated by others when they have lost their partner rather than any specific comment on the treatment of women by tyrannical men.

Generally films about women using violence to defend themselves always have an element of female empowerment to them and that's no bad thing, that's a core tenet of what thrillers and the horror genre especially are based on, so it's no surprise that those themes are apparent here.

It deals with its subject matter with a gritty realism for the most part and has one scene in particular involving the disposal of a body which stood out to me because of how well it was handled without being overly graphic. You feel the emotional weight of the horror an ordinary person would experience having to go through with something like that.

So, why doesn't it earn a five rating, well.
The main villain was an awful, awful actor and his presence in this movie nearly ruins the whole film. His dialogue is laughable and he has no air of menace or intimidation about him whatsoever. The film would have been better off without him in it, I was more interested in where the story seemed to be headed at the end of the second act, it felt like it was setting up for a pay off later that never happened which was disappointing. 

Overall while I enjoyed A Good Woman Is Hard To Find I can't add it to my recommendations list because of its flaws, which is such a shame as there is a great film in there somewhere and the performance from Sarah Bolger makes it definitely worth watching but it doesn't tie itself together all that well in the end.