By: Andrew Wing

The Forgiven is a 2021 drama film written and directed by John Michael McDonagh (The Guard, Calvary) and based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Lawrence Osborne. The film stars Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter film series, The Grand Budapest Hotel), Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, Molly’s Game), Matt Smith (The Crown, Doctor Who), Ismael Kanater, Caleb Landry Jones (Get Out, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Abbey Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road, Old), Mourad Zaoui, Marie-Josée Croze, Alex Jennings (Babel, The Crown), Saïd Taghmaoui, and Christopher Abbott (The Sinner, Catch-22). Elizabeth Eves and McDonagh produced the film through their House of Un-American Activities.

The film takes place over a weekend in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco and explores the reverberations of a random accident on the lives of both the locals and western visitors to a house party in a grand villa.

The Forgiven had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2021, and was released in the United States on July 1, 2022, by Roadside Attractions and Vertical Entertainment, and is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom on September 2, 2022, by Universal Pictures and Focus Features.

THE GOOD

The Forgiven has been on my radar for pretty much a whole year. I heard about it first when it was announced that it was going to premiere at TIFF, and it was obviously premiering with a lot of anticipation given who the two stars of the film were in Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain. Fiennes is one of the most prolific actors of the past thirty years which really started after he broke onto the scene back in 1993 in Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. Last year though he was in one of the biggest movies of 2021 in No Time to Die, which Ted reviewed (see full review here), and he is just one of the best in the business. It also stars Jessica Chastain, the reigning Best Actress for her performance in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which I reviewed (see my full review here), so needless to say, I was excited for this. But were those two big stars enough to make this the solid drama I have been waiting almost an entire year for? Keep reading to find out!

It unfortunately did not, but it certainly was not those two actors’ fault. I will get into some of my big complaints with the movie later in the bad section of the review, but let’s first talk about what I liked. To no one’s surprise, the best thing I liked about The Forgiven were the performances. Ralph Fiennes absolutely won here. He is such an amazing actor, and he put that on full display. His character, David Henninger, is a pretty unlikeable guy, and Fiennes as an actor just plays a villain so well. From Voldemort in the Harry Potter films, to his role in the lesser known black comedy In Bruges, one of me and Ted’s favorites, to now this, the guy can just play a piece of shit. As for Chastain, I wanted more from her character, and there’s a little sneak peek of what is to come later in the review, but everything she gave us was as marvelous as you’d expect. She really is one of the top actresses in the game right now, and she has been on a heater for a while now.

It wasn’t just those two though, we got a lot of solid supporting performances too. I was amazed by the Moroccan actor Ismael Kanater for what he brought to the screen here. This was the first I had ever seen of him given that he primarily stars in Moroccan films, but damn was he good. He was so intimidating, but also so emotional that you felt for his character with everything he had gone through. I also liked both Matt Smith and Christopher Abbott, two young actors on the rise, and speaking of young actors on the rise, let’s talk about Caleb Landry Jones. Landry Jones is one of the best young actors out there today, and twenty years from now when is a multiple time Academy Award winner, his role in this probably will have been forgotten, but I thought he stole all of the scenes he was in. He just goes for it as an actor as he always dials it up to 100 and that is something I absolutely respect as a cinephile.

I unfortunately don’t have a ton of good things to say about The Forgiven aside from the acting performances, but I will show some love to the tech side of things. First, the cinematography we got here was astounding. The film took place around the Sahara Desert, and while I would never want to travel there because of the heat, the beautiful scenery and the massive landscape which was perfectly captured almost had me willing to go for it. And second, the music in the film that was done by Lorne Balfe was really good. There is one theme that plays from the opening credits to the last scene in the film, and I was a big fan of it. It really fits the setting and it just gets you locked in. But that is no surprise given how good Balfe is, who is known for composing a big budget film like Mission: Impossible - Fallout, and also the hit Netflix series The Crown.

THE BAD

The Forgiven is a fine movie. It’s a decent drama with great performances, but I’ll be completely honest, I would never suggest this movie. And the main reason is because it is such a bore. The film moves so slow, and I was just checking my phone a little too often and my eyelids felt heavier as the film went on. I don’t know why, the movie isn’t even two hours long, but I just couldn’t get enthralled into the story that was being told and I just didn’t vibe with it.

Don’t get me wrong, there are things I still respect about the film and I appreciated some of it. I’m actually curious to read the book of the same name that the film is based on, just so I can see if the movie didn’t do a good enough job of telling the story and making it entertaining enough, because I got a feeling that’s the case. Oh, and one more thing, I said in the good when discussing Chastain’s performance that I wanted more, and it’s because I did. Nothing is more annoying than watching films with these great casts and then seeing that they don’t make the most out of it. Now Chastain was good, but her character just took too long to get interesting, and it’s a real shame we didn’t get to see more of her knowing how talented of an actress she is.

THE VERDICT

Despite great performances from Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, and the rest of the supporting cast, The Forgiven from John Michael McDonagh lacks both punch and pace and it results in the movie being a bit of a bore.

I respect the film for what it was going for. It had an intriguing setup and a gorgeous setting in the Sahara Desert, but considering what this could’ve been, I’d be lying if I said this film wasn’t a slight disappointment.