Fails the Bechdel test
The Good Girl
2002. Directed by Miguel Arteta, written by Mike White.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
0 / 3
Fails
-
No
1. At least two women
Fewer than two women characters. -
No
2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
A young married woman's mundane life takes a turn for the worst when she strikes up a passionate and illicit affair with an oddball discount-store stock boy who thinks he's Holden Caulfield.
- Released
- 30 Aug 2002
- Genres
- Drama, Romance
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.4 / 10
- Metascore
- 71 / 100
- Awards
- 5 wins & 16 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Justine 256 lines, woman
- Holden 90 lines, man
- Phil 84 lines, man
- Cheryl 32 lines, woman
- Bubba 31 lines, man
- Corny 24 lines, man
- Gwen 22 lines, woman
- Jack 18 lines, man
- Customer 12 lines
- Liberta 2 lines
Full cast, 20 people
- Jennifer Aniston as Justine Last
- Zooey Deschanel as Cheryl
- Jake Gyllenhaal as Holden Worther
- John Carroll Lynch as Jack Field, Your Store Manager
- Tim Blake Nelson as Bubba
- John C. Reilly as Phil Last
- Deborah Rush as Gwen Jackson
- Mike White as Corny
- John Doe as Mr. Worther
- Roxanne Hart as Mrs. Worther
- Aimee Garcia as Nurse
- Annie O'Donnell as Haggard Woman
- Jon Shere as Lester
- Alice Amter as Big Haired Woman
- Jean Rhodes as Old Woman
- Lalo Guerrero as Blackberry Vendor
- Michael Hyatt as Floberta
- Enzo as Bits
- Ken Rudulph as Reporter
- Jacquie Barnbrook as Heavy Set Woman
Who talks, scene by scene
We couldn't read who says what in this film's script, so there's no dialogue chart for it yet.
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 56 are women's.
315 lines from women, 250 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
9 women and 7 men in the cast. 4 women and 6 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
A woman speaks the first line.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 5 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 53% of the words (3,563), men 47% (3,121). Women have 56% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
0
Two men
11
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 34% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Miguel Arteta (man)
- Written by
- Mike White (man)
- Produced by
- Matthew Greenfield (man)
- Shot by
- Enrique Chediak (man)
- Edited by
- Jeff Betancourt (man)
- Music by
- Mark Orton (man), Joey Waronker (man), Tony Maxwell (man), James O'Brien (man)
- Production design by
- Daniel Bradford (man)
- Costumes by
- Nancy Steiner (woman)
- Cast by
- Joanna Colbert (woman), Meredith Tucker (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
4 women, 12 men, 9 not listed
-
Production
6 women, 5 men, 6 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 5 men, 11 not listed
-
Other crew
2 women, 5 men, 7 not listed
-
Art
2 women, 1 men, 8 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
3 women, 1 men, 3 not listed
-
Directing
2 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 38 on average. Men: 36 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Zooey Deschanel 22, Jennifer Aniston 33, Deborah Rush 48, Roxanne Hart 50
Men
Jake Gyllenhaal 21, Mike White 32, John C. Reilly 37, Tim Blake Nelson 38, John Carroll Lynch 39, John Doe 48
Exhibit G: the money
It made 2.1 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $8 million
- Box office
- $16.9 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 1 scenes and 580 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
