The Forgiven is a 2021 thriller directed by John Michael McDonagh, starring Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain.
An uncomfortable movie in its plot and a not very subtle social criticism.
Synopsis
David and Jo Henninger are a couple with a luxurious lifestyle on the verge of a divorce. While on their way to a party in Morocco, they run over a boy, which will plunge their lives into an intricate game of lies.
Movie Review
A film that dresses up as an elegant and sophisticated thriller, with the English actor who best embodies this type of role (after Jeremy Irons) and with an extraordinary actress named Jessica Chastain who (you don’t have to be a lynx) is an intelligent woman who knows how to select her roles.
Well, The Forgiven does not entirely convince, turning the thriller into piece of social criticism, concerning classism, and clearly showing off a tendentious discourse of the one and the other, at all times judging the characters. As said it is corseted more in the discourse social than in the thriller that, truth be told, is what we had come to see.
It is an elegant film in terms of style and formulation, a bit in the style of Bertolucci’s ‘Shelter Sky‘, but without its poetic ability or its charm, with a thriller that loses itself in a sordid parody of classes and that, finally, is unsuccessful in terms of genre and intention: it is neither the comedy, that the director probably wanted, nor the blockbuster thriller with movie stars that the production company had wished for.
A hard-to-digest hybrid that, without any charm in the script that the movie boasts of in its form, becomes empty.
Our Opinion
It is a pity that, with such good material, this film is valid in its form, but end up lost in no man’s land.
The Cast
Ralph Fiennes
He started acting in a 1992 film, Wuthering Heights and rose to fame in Steven Spielberg‘s movie, Schindler‘s List (1993). This year, she starred in Quiz Show. He played the main role in The English Patient (1996) and he played a “weird guy” in The Constant Gardener (2005). One of his best movies is The Reader (2008), alongside Kate Winslet.
In addition, he has played the role of Voldemort in the Harry Potter saga and has participated in the Bond saga in Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021).
He starred in The King’s Man saga and stars in The Forgiven, a new movie alongside Jessica Chastain, and in The Menu (2022).
Jessica Chastain
Jessica Chastain is an Academy Award winning actress known for the movies Zero Dark City (2011) and The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021).
Jessica Michelle Chastain is an American actress born in Sacramento (California) on March 24, 1977.
She is known for movies like Zero Dark Thirty (2011), Ava (2020), and The 355 (2022).
Her last movie is The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021). She won the Oscar for this movie.
Jessica Michelle Chastain is an American actress and film producer. Known for her roles in films with feminist themes, she has received various accolades throughout her career, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012. (From Wikipedia)
Movie Trailer
Other Reviews
“There may have been higher ideals in mind, but “The Forgiven” fails to gracefully reach them.”
LA Times“McDonagh’s film is well-crafted throughout but ultimately has nothing fresh or insightful to say about the ugliness of white privilege.”
Roger Ebert
