PERFECTLY GOOD MOMENT: Haunting Psychological Thriller

Trigger warning: this review and film discusses and displays emotional abuse. 

Perfectly Good Moment, written by Amanda Jane Stern and directed by Lauren Greenhall, follows the tumultuous relationship between David (Stephen Carlile) and Ruby (Amanda Jane Stern), telling a story exploring the dangers of abusive relationships – and how often women get stuck in them, thinking there is no chance of escape.

Relatable, Haunting Thriller

Perfectly Good Moment works well as a thriller, creating horrifying moments through facial expressions and repeated phrases. We can feel Ruby’s anxiety as David repeats the same complaints about her over and over, making Ruby anxious and doubting her own self-worth.

Amanda Jane Stern‘s writing captures the nuance of life and relationships. So often, abusive relationships in films focus only on the physical, while emotional abuse is just as haunting and terrifying.

Watching Ruby flinch as David repeatedly apologizes for snapping at her and telling her she’s ruining everything. One of the most powerful pieces of dialogue happens when Ruby expresses that she is scared to speak at all, because no matter how inconsequential something is, it leads to David’s wrath.

Amanda Jane Stern‘s performance as Ruby perfectly represents the unease women feel trapped in abusive relationships. Each subtle flinch and movement to turn her eyes away from David–afraid she will light up even more anger within him–is powerful and relatable.

Building Up Horror and Tension

Perfectly Good Moment is one of the films that has made me feel the most scared as I connect to the types of emotional abuse David uses against Ruby, to make her doubt herself. My internal anxious thoughts were tremendously present watching Perfectly Good Moment. I could hear my own doubts mirrored in the abuse David inflicted on Ruby, especially comments demeaning her intelligence while trying to make himself seem superior.

Every moment David pushed and played with Ruby’s self-esteem to make himself feel more powerful shows us how damaging relationships with huge power imbalances can be. Perfectly Good Moment establishes this May-December relationship as something David is proud of–showcasing his true feelings early on.

When we learn David didn’t tell his family he was bringing Ruby to meet them because he wanted to see their reactions tells us how little David cares about Ruby as a person. His main goal is to find someone to control–and this film expresses how dangerous it is to be in a relationship with someone who wants to beat down your importance to inflate their own ego and sense of power.

Perfectly Good Moment shifts through the timeline of Ruby and David’s relationship – showing us moments where they were seemingly happy, but even here, the dangers lurk under the surface and are hinted at in David’s treatment of Ruby. Stephen Carlile‘s performance captures the character’s creepy qualities from David and Ruby’s first introduction, and this unease the audience feels toward David never subsides, even in moments before Ruby realizes she needs to escape.

The structure of Perfectly Good Moment adds to the film’s allure and makes the twist that much more impactful and engaging. Watching Ruby work her way out from under an abusive relationship that she felt she could never be free from is empowering and Perfectly Good Moment is a great example of revenge cinema. The twist works well and is foreshadowed through clever dialogue and visual moments of unexplained horror, until it all comes together in the end.

Highlighting Emotional Abuse

Perfectly Good Moment does a wonderful job highlighting all the overlooked elements that make up an abusive relationship. As the film progresses, we learn that David has cut off everyone else from Ruby’s life and repeatedly tells her nobody else has been there for her like him – which is from his own design to ensure a false sense of need.

Often films about abusive relationships rely on graphic depictions of violence, but expressing emotional abuse – with a few well-placed violent outbursts – makes for just as terrifying a depiction of abuse without diving toward depictions that feel sensationalized and glorifying.

The opening scene of Perfectly Good Moment shows David and Ruby meeting at a mixer for business students and alumni. Ruby might be charmed by David, but from Carlile‘s performance – we can already see the dangers behind his smile and self-assumed charm.

Amanda Jane Stern and Stephen Carlile both give wonderful, captivating performances, highlighting the unhealthy, dangerous relationship between Ruby and David.

Conclusion:

Perfectly Good Moment is a difficult-to-watch and captivating thriller, expressing the dangers of both emotional and physical abuse, through a taut, well-structured script from Amanda Jane Stern, haunting directing from Lauren Greenhall, and strong performances from Amanda Jane Stern and Stephen Carlile.

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