The Girls from Ipanema
A woman’s abusive husband looks for the perfect place to murder her mother. 
She leads him to it.

The experts often note that domestic abuse starts “small”.  The abuser loooooves you sooooo much, they can’t bear to be apart.  They want you all to themselves. They don’t like your friends.  They keep you away from your loved ones.  They worry about you excessively.  Verbal abuse follows.  Physical violence comes later.  The abuse escalates.

Like it has for Louise, the wife of abusive Ernst in Douglas Wolf's The Girls from Ipanema. 

Ernst criticizes, ridicules, scolds and hits Louise, who seems woefully acquiescent and helpless.  The other “girl” is Louise’s mother, Marcie.  The script opens with Ernst mulling over his plans to murder Marcie and collect the insurance money on the policy they’ve both signed. 

The only detail he seems not to have yet figured out is exactly how and where to carry out the killing.  Louise appears so pathetic and weak, that the only protest she ventures is when he throws a longing look at the knives in the kitchen. 

Louise double-takes between Ernst and the knives.

LOUISE
Ernst. Not here. This is where I do my baking.

Ernst strides out of the kitchen in search of an alternative site for the deadly deed, vomiting screeds against Louise’s mother as he stomps around the house. 

Where are the likes of Beatrix Kiddo from Kill Bill or Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo when you need them?  Just turn the page to welcome the arrival of someone who knows how to really wreak bloody revenge on a man who has abused a woman.  But, will she prevail?

Audiences will be at the edge of their seats hoping she does.  And, rolling on the floor, once they discover why in the heck these women have anything to do with Ipanema, Brazil.