Good Favour

Many mysteries but precious few answers are found in Irish writer-director Rebecca Daly’s moody but slow and enigmatic Good Favour, which is set in a rustic fundamentalist Christian community. A boy named Tom (Vincent Romeo) stumbles into the isolated village, exhausted and injured, from the surrounding forest. Tom is an opaque figure, saying little as he stares at the locals with dark, sunken eyes and a perpetually stricken expression. The sect’s leader insists that all should welcome him, and most do, especially the children, who flock around Tom. But the man charged with taking Tom in as a guest is suspicious, although his wife and daughter—who nurse the boy back to health—are far more accommodating. Still, there is lingering doubt over whether Tom’s appearance bodes well or ill as the community is haunted by the disappearance of a boy in the forest, and Tom might be involved. On the other hand, Tom has a wound that does not heal—like the stigmata—and seems himself to possess healing powers, so he might be heaven-sent, which explains why he assumes an increasing leadership role. Good Favour raises numerous intriguing possibilities but is ultimately content to leave them hanging, successfully evoking the hothouse atmosphere of a closed religious community but also suffering from studied ambiguity and funereal pacing that makes for a viewing experience more frustrating than enlightening. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)