Stephen Carlile and Amanda Jane Stern (who also wrote the screenplay) star in Perfectly Good Moment, a psychological thriller with Ruby and David as its central characters. This is where they first set eyes on each other at Business Students Alumni Mixer, which is not only the opening scene but also the only one involving more than two actors beside its ending. After this brief interlude, the audience watches their relationship descend into further depths of toxicity and danger.
Eight years after their break-up, Act I takes place when Ruby and David have reconciled. However, there are signs that this ideal beginning has made for a less than healthy relationship between them. One such obviousness may be David’s constant forcing of Ruby to repeat “I need you.”
Apart from that, it is understood that David is older than her. In another part of the movie we learn that he was fifteen when she was born; they meet while she is still an undergraduate student in Columbia College as a sophomore-aged woman. A situation ripe for power dynamics does not have to occur in every May-December romance.
Act II then sets up the worst fears of viewers about this affair since it occurs on the day it ends. When Ruby reaches for her wine glass poured by David earlier on and he slaps her hand saying let it sit down before trying to down play by saying it wasn’t hard enough.
This portion comes with one of the scariest moments in this film when David outlines his wedding plans as if they were his desires rather than theirs. He did so without telling her while booking a venue in London where his family comes from instead of showing it to her before even thinking about what potential place would suit both families best. “They haven’t been there for [her] way [he]have” insinuates that maybe Ruby hasn’t contacted her folks for some time now according to him Things get worse when he says now would be a good time for them to have a baby.
The film indicates that this break-up is more of an escape, and it also suggests that Ruby has tried to do the same thing in the past. This naturally brings us to the matter of why on earth Ruby would go back to him. Well, at first glance it seems like her situation may be one that many victims find themselves in where they returned their tormentors due to psychological, financial or other reasons as you can read more about at Psychology Today.
Ruby let’s David think she is returning out of love rather than revenge because he will finally stop bothering her. During the movie we get bits of information about Ruby’s occupation. She tells him that she got an internship with a tech start up while they were still dating. He later tells her “you’ll want to quit your silly little virtual games now that will have two kids before you’re thirty.”
In Perfectly Good Moment, Act III shows the meaning of the term ‘augmented user experience’ in movies as well as takes a sharp turn into Black Mirror. She spikes David’s coffee with drugs and connects him to this virtual reality headset like characters in Ready Player One do. The entire first act was essentially a simulation that was actually prefigured earlier by two photos glitching.
Before, during Act II; Ruby tells David she is drowning at her office while still at home. Ruby claims to be going to see her obstetrician-gynecologist. In Act III, she lies again about seeing a doctor, but this time it was for abortion purpose. If you take offense with that then another interpretation would be that it is just more lies on Ruby’s part aimed at making David convict himself.
While Perfectly Good Moment isn’t quite as graphically violent as other films and TV shows on domestic violence and sexual assault (tastelessness has some pretty high standards), it does have enough material on screen for one to be triggered by it. Still, potential viewers must bear that in mind when evaluating whether or not the movie is worth recommending.
A film abruptly changing genre doesn’t always have to be bad and Perfectly Good Moment has done it appropriately enough. Additionally, this is also a very talky movie; something which could easily lend itself to being adapted into a stage play–which might turn off some people for an entirely different reason whatsoever. Nonetheless, performances from Carlile and Stern are spellbinding.Credit goes towards Lauren Greenhall again for successfully directing her first narrative feature film.
Watch free movies on Fmovies
