Review: The Forgiven

Directed by: John Michael McDonagh

Written by: John Michael McDonagh

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, Matt Smith, Ismael Kanater, Caleb Landry Jones

Rating: [2/5]

Acts of forgiveness never guarantee its acceptance from the injured party. The only way to ensure its affirmative reception comes from learning exactly what needs to be done from those harmed. This is what causes a wealthy man to venture out to the desert to atone for his actions all the while his wife stays behind and engages in debauchery. A strange situation and an equally confusing one that by the end begs the question of what the point of the entire exercise was.

Driving out to the house of their mutual friend, married couple David (Ralph Fiennes) and Jo (Jessica Chastain) bicker all the way there. While driving in the dark with minimal visibility, they hit and kill a teenager with their vehicle. Now arriving at their friends’ home, they must reckon with this accident as the father of the child arrives demanding an act of contrition for their actions. 

So many elements of The Forgiven drive intrigue in its setup, where you have a couple having to drive four hours within Morocco to a house seemingly in the middle of the desert. This home is more of an estate owned by a gay couple within a majority Muslim nation. When the father of the killed child arrives, David assumes he can just pay the man off as his act of contrition. Instead, he must return to the home of the child and help bury the young lad. David decides to move forward and complete this. The decision David makes comes with plenty of fear on his part as well as Jo and rightfully so. However, David goes out and splits the film into two narratives as we also witness Jo’s adventures while her husband is away. 

With a decent buildup, this film very quickly loses much of its luster. While we watch moments of David watching a heartbreaking grieving process with the fear he could be taken in any moment by any of the individuals of this village, Jo’s just having a great time. This dichotomy, I suppose, intends to display a difference between the pair and a level of selfishness on the part of Jo. This film makes it clear this couple has their issues they need to overcome if they plan on making it any further in their relationship, but juxtaposing everything David endures in this film with Jo cheating on him and engaging in this gloriously sensual vacation just feels a bit odd. Whatever message John Michael McDonagh sought to convey does not really feel very coherent. After all, even if David controlled the wheel when this accident occurred, Jo played a part in the distraction that led to the child’s demise and set the stage for the rest of the film. 

The only possible explanation lies in this film attempting to display the privilege of these individuals and the way they seek to continue the party even after this tragedy occurred. However, this juxtaposition feels completely out of place when comparing it to the soulful and remorseful experience David goes in as part of his contrition. It begs the question of whether the film would have been better served by sticking with David’s story and taking that journey at face value rather than trying to combine it with a commentary of the rich partying after all of this happened. It proved evident that John Michael McDonagh bit off a bit more than he could chew with this one. 

Equally a soulful and miserable viewing experience, The Forgiven has an idea of what it wants to communicate about privilege and contrition, but its execution is truly horrendous. It somewhat redeems itself in the moments where Ralph Fiennes goes through quite the experience, but the film decides it also wants to engage in seeing rich people obliviously have fun in the middle of it all. This disjointed effort sidetracks all of the good it tries to accomplish. Perhaps this comes from a desire to see Jessica Chastain party in some fun outfits. Perhaps a split of these two stories would have allowed this film to fare better, but alas, it results in something completely disappointing despite possessing all of the components that should result in something that should have succeeded.