Movie Review: The Forgiven

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

A thought-provoking and very well-made film.

While this film may not have the complex as it could have been, it still does a great job exploring its difficult themes and being an exciting watch. The movie centers around a rich couple who run over a young man on their way to a party in Morrocco. From here, the story takes quite a few twists and turns, that even many seasoned movie goers wouldn't see coming. This all leads up to a heck of an ending that makes you easily forgive its faults. Meanwhile it discusses themes such as casual racism, empathy, a person's ability to truly change and the shallowness of a life dedicated simply dedicated to wealth and debauchery. All these themes are for the most part woven into the story quite well. The film is at its best when it centers on the husband of the main couple. He is by far the most complex character in the film. Though he is not exactly likable much of the time, there is still more to him underneath the horrible things he has done. The more we learn about him the more interesting he becomes, and he is far from the stereotyped heartless character he could have been. This is heavily helped by a wonderfully complex performance from Ralph Fiennes. It is this character that keeps the movie believable with every twist and turn. The film also does an incredible job at creating real suspense and creating a great sense of atmosphere. Though this movie takes place in Morrocco, there is a certain other worldly feeling throughout the film that is hard to explain. 

On the downside is certainly the subplot with his wife cheating on him. These scenes are simply quite boring and not interesting in the slightest. These scenes play as if they belonged to a much more typical and much less engaging movie. I get what the filmmakers are trying to do with these scenes and how they are supposed to contrast the debauchery of the party with the real-world tragedy going on around it. Yet that still does not make these scenes engaging in any way. There is also a lot of dialogue throughout the film that simply feels forced and as if they were there only to state the obvious moral of the story.

This movie is definitely faulted but that doesn't take away from the fact that the things that worked were fantastic.