movie review a good woman is hard to find

A Good Woman is Hard to Find

The sight of Sarah Bolger ’s bare neck and shoulders flecked with rivulets of blood and bits of human tissue is a riveting one, hence an apt hook on which to begin this unrelenting thriller. Here she’s about to try to shower off the matter, and she does so with a matter-of-factness that suggests she’s not anybody’s guilt-ridden Lady Macbeth. She’ll shed blood if she has to, and over the course of this picture she’ll get pretty good at it.

The movie flashes back to the not-so-vague miseries of this character’s life—she’s also named Sarah—not too long before. She’s a new widow! Her husband was mysteriously murdered! The youngest of her two children has stopped talking! Her own mother is a scolding drudge! People in her council flats development think her husband was a drug dealer! And so on. Things get markedly worse when a real drug dealer, the tattooed and mouthy Tito, storms into her place trying to avoid some kind of trouble and decides that her joint would be not just a great place to take a nap but to store some narcotics he’s nicked from a local crime lord. “It’s not east, what we do,” Tito—who has apparently adopted his name from that of the Eastern European leader, or something—petulantly protests to Sarah, a little before trying to rape her. This does not go well, for him.

“A Good Woman Is Hard To Find,” directed by Abner Pastoll from a script by Ronan Blaney , is not the glib girl-power vengeance fantasy it could well have been. It’s not as easy as that, but you actually kind of wish it were a lot of the time. Sarah is not a natural born killer, nor a wunderkind at dismembering a corpse, which she is compelled to do at one point. She’s also not quite as exemplary a moral actor as one would wish. Eventually the local crime lord who’s searching for Tito picks up his scent near Sarah’s place, and when he and his thugs start menacing Sarah, a couple of noble sanitation workers come to her aid, and she just runs off with the kids and allows those fluorescent-yellow-jacketed knights take brutal beatings.

But then again, consider what Sarah’s up against. At one point the cops come into her place and turn it upside down for the express purpose of messing with her. As Henry Fonda put it in John Ford ’s “ My Darling Clementine ,” “What kind of a town IS this?”

It’s a town whose local crime lord—played by Edward Hogg , whose name suggests exactly what he does with his screen time—unfortunately, talks like a character in a bad Tarantino knockoff, asking one of the lugs he tortures to give him an example of a metaphor and then inflicting great pain when the kid replies with a simile.

I cannot lie, though. As cranky as much of the movie made me, Pastoll, Blaney, and especially Bolger all contrive to deliver as satisfying a climax and dénouement to this saga as one could hope for. So there is that. 

Available on VOD today, 5/8.

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Sarah Bolger as Sarah
• Edward Hogg as Leo Miller
• Andrew Simpson as Tito
• Jane Brennan as Alice
• Packy Lee as Mackers
• Caolan Byrne as Terry
• Rudy Doherty as Ben
• Abner Pastoll
• Matthew Pusti

Cinematographer

• Richard C Bell
• Ronan Blaney

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‘A Good Woman Is Hard to Find’ Review: Driven to Extremes

A riveting Sarah Bolger adds emotional weight to this revenge tale.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

Like the vibrator that facilitates a turning point for its owner in “A Good Woman Is Hard to Find,” this remorseless revenge story is a particularly blunt implement. Yet the director, Abner Pastoll, finds a measure of delicacy and nuance in the telling: Working from a script (by Ronan Blaney) that’s a minor miracle of austerity and pacing, he layers gangland grift, domestic drama and female fury into a satisfying lasagna of mounting violence.

Set in an unnamed city in Northern Ireland against a painstakingly drawn backdrop of low-income strife, the movie focuses on Sarah (a fantastic Sarah Bolger), a frayed mother of two. Pale and delicate, Sarah carries the twin burdens of a recently deceased husband and a son who mysteriously refuses to speak. We don’t learn immediately how her husband died; but, given that we meet her covered in blood before the movie backtracks to fill in the blanks, we suspect that it may not have been from natural causes.

“Best let sleeping dogs lie,” a disinterested police officer advises when Sarah inquires about the investigation into the death. They have already written him off as a bad lot; so when Tito (Andrew Simpson), an opportunistic thief, breaks into her home to stash his latest drug haul, the terrified Sarah sees little point in seeking help from the authorities. To protect her little ones from Tito — and, later, the gangland big shot who owns the drugs — she will have to act alone.

While the movie barrels toward a final act that’s more feminist fantasy than credible conclusion, Bolger’s phenomenal performance locks us tightly on Sarah’s side. If good women are hard to find here, good men are impossible: In hardware store and supermarket, men regard her with contempt and condescension. Police officers and social workers alike assess her appearance and parenting with barely veiled disapproval. And by wrapping the character in a miasma of sexism, the filmmakers excuse her operatic violence as more than simply a mother’s need to defend her offspring: It’s a long-suppressed rage against every demeaning look and insinuating comment.

At the same time, this potent little thriller (photographed by Richard Bell using Grand Guignol bursts of sticky red and impenetrable black) is careful to remind us regularly of Sarah’s tender side.

“You’re too soft, Sarah,” her judgmental mother (a fine Jane Brennan) snaps, watching her with the children. If she only knew.

A Good Woman is Hard to Find

Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. Watch on Film Movement’s Virtual Cinema or rent or buy on Amazon,  iTunes  and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.

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A Good Woman Is Hard to Find Reviews

The not so great title aside, Pastoll, Bolger and screenwriter Ronan Blaney tell a gritty crime story that takes some unexpectedly grisly turns (it’s not for the squeamish).

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 19, 2022

A compelling, and wrenching character piece led brilliantly by [Star] Bolger.

Full Review | Nov 15, 2020

A Good Woman Is Hard To Find is a punchy, uncompromising crime thriller that delivers exactly what it promises and is a fantastic showcase for the talents of both director Abner Pastoll and lead actress Sarah Bolger.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 23, 2020

A Good Woman is Hard to Find is an unflinching look at what it's like for a woman to be alone in a dangerous, misogynistic world.

Full Review | Jul 23, 2020

A Good Woman is Hard to Find tries to be everything for everyone...nevertheless, its' refreshing to watch Sarah move from fearful to fierce.

Full Review | Jul 11, 2020

The primary strength of the picture is Sarah Bolger's performance .

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 11, 2020

Sarah Bolger's trembling, hollowed-out performance gives the film a bleak, authentic weight.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jun 5, 2020

A routine revenge flick packs a bigger message along with the grisly action.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | May 24, 2020

A mixture of Ken Loach and pulp fiction female revenge movies not without its flaws. But as a premiere from director Abner Pastoll, it is a most auspicious debut.

Full Review | May 17, 2020

A tight, unexpected little thriller headlined by a fantastic lead performance.

Full Review | May 13, 2020

Mixing Ken Loach-style social realism with Mike Hodge's grasp of stylish murder, much in the vein of 2012's equally razor-balanced sniper shocker Tower Block, you'll be cheering for this good woman when she faces the inevitable showdown.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 12, 2020

A Good Woman Is Hard to Find is a slow burn with an ending that's worth the wait.

Full Review | May 12, 2020

It's blood curdling stuff and it's not for the squeamish, but Bolger grounds it and centers it as the story of a struggling mother protecting her loved ones at any cost.

Full Review | Original Score: B | May 12, 2020

There is a marvelous arc to the character that keeps you rooting for her [Sarah] all the way through.

Full Review | Original Score: B | May 11, 2020

The film's stylishly conceived and executed, even if the layers of coincidences are too top heavy for the film's own good.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 11, 2020

[A Good Woman Is Hard To Find] is a familiar interpretation of an exploitative revenge model that's ten-thousand-percent elevated by lead actress Sarah Bolger.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 11, 2020

The engine of the project, however, is undoubtedly Bolger ... this is not a character with a limited palette, and Bolger knows how to make her a firework.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | May 10, 2020

A grimy exploitation movie trying too hard to seem respectable.

Full Review | May 9, 2020

Stylish Irish noir with a killer femme fatale. Big move for Sarah Bolger.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | May 8, 2020

As cranky as much of the movie made me, Pastoll, Blaney, and especially Bolger all contrive to deliver as satisfying a climax and dénouement to this saga as one could hope for.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 8, 2020

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

A Good Woman Is Hard to Find

A recently widowed young mother will go to any lengths to protect her children as she seeks the truth behind her husband's murder. A recently widowed young mother will go to any lengths to protect her children as she seeks the truth behind her husband's murder. A recently widowed young mother will go to any lengths to protect her children as she seeks the truth behind her husband's murder.

• Abner Pastoll
• Ronan Blaney
• Sarah Bolger
• Edward Hogg
• Andrew Simpson
• 97 User reviews
• 115 Critic reviews
• 65 Metascore
• 11 wins & 2 nominations

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• Dr Rosa Brady

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• Trivia The original shooting schedule was 20 days but it abruptly had to be reduced by 4 days only a week before principal photography began. The entire film was shot in only 16 days and split between Northern Ireland and Belgium.

Ben : [only lines] West

• Crazy credits After the end credits, Sarah is seen briefly looking into camera.
• Soundtracks Atonement Performed by Deitus

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• Apr 25, 2020
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• May 8, 2020 (United States)
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• Runtime 1 hour 37 minutes

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A Good Woman Is Hard To Find

By Lorry Kikta | November 3, 2019

I can’t help but love a good revenge thriller, especially if the person seeking revenge is a woman. There is something so inherently satisfying about seeing a man who did a woman wrong get his just desserts. In A Good Woman Is Hard To Find,   there is so much revenge to be had for our protagonist, Sarah (Sarah Bolger). She goes through the lion’s share of unenviable hard times. Before the outset of the film, her husband had been murdered, and the police never took much interest in the case. Sarah’s left to take care of her two children, Ben and Lucy, alone. Ben stopped speaking since being present at the death of his father. So, it’s not exactly a happy home, to begin with, and then to make matters worse, enter Tito (Andrew Simpson).

Tito is a drug dealer who had the bright idea to rip off his boss, a gangster with a screw loose, and a penchant for good grammar, Leo Miller (Edward Hogg). He somehow manages to escape Miller and his goons after stealing the stash and decides that Sarah’s home is the ideal place to keep it. It’s a really bad case of wrong place/wrong time for her, considering everything else she’s already going through. She now has a squirrely drug dealer using her home as a stash house. The one positive is that she gets a cut of his earnings, but that one positive does not outweigh the sea of negatives that accompany Tito. One day Sarah makes a big mistake that enrages Tito. Sarah has to make some deadly decisions to save her own life.

“She now has a squirrely drug dealer using her home as a stash house.”

This is nearly half of what happens with Sarah on her journey to redemption in  A Good Woman Is Hard To Find.  Bolger is excellent as Sarah, and unlike a lot of other vengeance movies, there is hardly anything sexy (and therefore totally unrealistic) about it at all. You see all the grisly details. You see Sarah’s under-eye circles after several sleepless nights dealing with unimaginable horrors. You see a lot of blood and guts. You never see Sarah as weak, however. She always has the preservation of her family as her first priority.

A Good Woman Is Hard To Find  is an extremely harrowing, tense movie that has such an unbelievably satisfying payoff. Bolger, Simpson, and Hogg shine in their respective roles, with Bolger being a shimmering stand-out. The practical effects are excellent, and there’s even a metal concert in the film towards the end. Overall, I’d say that writer Ronan Blaney and director Abner Pastoll have a winner on their hands, and I’m very excited to see how it does when it leaves the festival circuit.

A Good Woman Is Hard To Find   has it’s public debut at FrightFest UK, after a secret screening at Fantasia Festival .

A Good Woman Is Hard To Find (2019 )

Directed: Abner Pastoll

Written: Ronan Blaney

Starring: Sarah Bolger, Andrew Simpson, Edward Hogg, Jane Brennan, Caolan Byrne, Packy Lee, Rudy Doherty, Macie McCauley, etc.

Movie score: 8/10

"…Sarah has to make some deadly decisions to save her own life. "

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Review: a good woman is hard to find is a rare bird, until it isn’t.

The film’s early scenes turn the stuff of paying bills and managing kids into manna for an unsettlingly intimate domestic thriller.

A colleague described Abner Pastoll’s A Good Woman Is Hard to Find as a horror film version of Ken Loach’s recent Sorry We Missed You —an astute observation that underscores a similarity between kitchen-sink dramas and crime thrillers from the U.K. In both types of films, characters are often stymied by systemic poverty and injustice, but thrillers frequently offer the catharsis of violent fantasy that occasionally suggest a balancing of social ledgers. If the two films in this case are seen close together, A Good Woman Is Hard to Find could scan as a daydream that the frazzled wife of Loach’s production may have entertained while riding the bus to and from her hospice patients.

Like the characters in Sorry We Missed You , Sarah (Sarah Bolger) spends every moment of her waking life trying to avoid calamity. Single with two young children, Ben (Rudy Doherty) and Lucy (Macie McCauley), Sarah is lonely and mourning the mysterious death of her husband while contending with limited money and the relentless condescension of nearly everyone, particularly men. The film’s first act buzzes with an unusual and eerie impression of randomness, as menace seems to casually encroach Sarah from every angle: a grocery store manager flirtatiously hassles her over a candy bar that Ben eats, which Sarah can’t afford; Sarah’s mother, Alice (Jane Brennan), makes cryptic allusions to the murder of her husband; and a drug dealer, Tito (Andrew Simpson), rips drugs off a couple of other hoods near Sarah’s house. Above all, there’s the ongoing fear of the children misbehaving or screwing up, which happens often, and which is understood to be capable of unleashing disaster in terms of money expenditure and the intrusion of unsympathetic police officers, doctors, and so on. (Incidentally, Sorry We Missed You is also quite vividly consumed with this fear.)

These incidents are emblematic of the filmmakers’ empathy for Sarah. There’s a moment in A Good Woman Is Hard to Find that’s more imaginative, and seemingly torn from human experience, than any scene in Loach’s production. Sarah is about to use her vibrator only to discover that it needs batteries. Having none, she checks her remote controls, which are dead, and scrambles around until she finally removes the batteries from of one of her children’s toys with a butter knife. Despite the bloodshed that eventually occurs Sarah’s home, and which is telegraphed by the opening image, this sequence is the most suspenseful in the film, as we’re led to desperately wish for this woman to experience this modicum of pleasure. The moment also illustrates how poverty informs and limits every element of life, affecting one’s notions of personal agency, including sexual power. Often looking frazzled, Sarah is criticized by many for her appearance, and she radiates an exhausted hopelessness, which she can barely relieve even late at night, with the kids in bed, in the sanctity of her home.

The vibrator also foreshadows a wicked joke. Sarah and Tito collide when he takes over her house, hiding the drugs inside her bathroom. Initially, Tito isn’t quite the vicious thug of most Desperate Hours -style thrillers, as he seems to want to play a perverse kind of house with Sarah—a notion which only makes him scarier, for suggesting a nightmarish inversion of Sarah’s desire for her husband’s return. When Tito dramatically oversteps his bounds, Sarah stabs him in the eye with the vibrator, asserting herself for the first time in the film, turning a fake cock against a figurative dick who comes to resemble an extreme version of every asshole who taunts Sarah on a daily basis. Such a rebellion will not be permitted in a world that sees people like Sarah as pitiful, and so a stream of atrocities is unleashed.

After Tito spectacularly exits the picture, the film’s seemingly random, initially scary details are revealed to be part of a governing theme. Pastoll and screenwriter Ronan Blaney have loaded the narrative with pop-psych feminist tropes, as Sarah learns to respect herself, dress sexy again, and battle her oppressors. (The film’s most notable image, of Sarah drenched in blood, recalls famous scenes from other female-driven thrillers such as Carrie and The Descent .) As it grows preachy, A Good Woman Is Hard to Find loses its juice, reverting to formula, as Sarah inexplicably becomes a super woman who mows down gang members without compunction. Pastoll betrays the livewire suspense of his early scenes, which turn the stuff of paying bills and managing kids into manna for an unsettlingly intimate domestic thriller. Humans are fairly rare in genre films, while killer badasses are a dime a dozen.

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Eye For Film >> Movies >> A Good Woman Is Hard To Find (2019) Film Review

A good woman is hard to find.

Reviewed by: Jennie Kermode

Cinematic events like the Fantasia International Film Festival , where this film screened, are a mystery to some. Why would anyone seek out the chance to watch horror when there's so much of it in the world already? For Sarah (Sarah Bolger) it's part of everyday life. Her husband was stabbed to death not long ago and her young son, who was with him at the time, hasn't spoken since. The police are no help, quick to blame her for her own troubles. She was a wee daughter to look after too, and a mother who's still angry at her for every marrying the man she loved, insisting that he was a drug dealer. All Sarah wants is a normal life and a decent chance for her kids, but that's hard to find - even before brash young thief Tito (Andrew Simpson) breaks into her flat and decides to use it as a stash house for the drugs he's stolen from a local gang boss.

Tito is a threat but he's also an opportunity. Sarah figures that she might be able to extract information from him that will help her find out what really happened to her man, and find his killer. But Tito is unstable and dangerous and Sarah is alone in the world. She can't even go to the supermarket without people trying to prey on her. Behind a plot focused on gang violence is an acutely observed landscape of day to day horror, of what it does to people - especially women and those men unable to defend themselves physically - to live in poverty on housing estates that wider society has given up on. Sarah has learned to keep her head down to try and survive. She has been taught to be a victim. The visiting social worker doesn't have to mention it directly for us to recognise the threat that her children will be taken away from her. Even a broken window is assumed to be her fault, her responsibility - there's no meaningful offer of help.

The steely courage that it takes to fight back in this situation make Sarah an awe-inspiring character to watch - and yet one who many viewers who have lived in poverty will relate to. She's never overblown and there's never any sense of bravado. The terror she expresses as she tries (sometimes physically) to shield her children feels absolutely real. Her natural instinct is to avoid conflict and all forms of related unpleasantness, and when she does what she has to to protect those she loves, we never get the impression that she has undergone a mental shift, that it has become easy for her.

Beautifully observed and with a terrific central performance from Bolger, this is a film that takes a simple story and gives it real power. Director Abner Pastoll builds up the tension masterfully, with most of the action focused around Sarah's small flat, on the ground floor, with glass panelled doors and thin walls - impossible to defend. The complicated relationship between Sarah and her mother is beautifully drawn and even Tito gets his moments of humanity, or at least moments when his naivety becomes so obvious that it's impossible not to pity the person he might have been had he grown up in better circumstances. Entrenched social misogyny has clearly damaged him as well as the women in the film, and is part of a patchwork of learned behaviours that seem to cut short everybody's chances. Everybody seems to have got through life by making ugly compromises, and it's when Sarah finds that she no longer has room for compromise that the film shifts gears.

A worthy follow-up to the underrated Road Games , A Good Woman Is Hard To Find may leave some viewers looking at single mothers on housing estates with a new respect.

Director: Abner Pastoll

Writer: Roland Blaney

Starring: Sarah Bolger, Edward Hogg, Andrew Simpson

Runtime: 97 minutes

Country: UK, Belgium, Ireland

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