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The Forgiven

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United Kingdom · 2022
Rated R · 1h 57m
Director John Michael McDonagh
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, Matt Smith, Caleb Landry Jones
Genre Drama

A wealthy English couple is involved in a tragic accident with a local boy while speeding through the Moroccan desert to attend an old friend's lavish weekend party. When the couple attempts to cover up the incident, the boy's father arrives seeking justice, setting the stage for a culture clash with life-altering repercussions for all.

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What are critics saying?

60

The Guardian by Benjamin Lee

The film’s strange scrappy indefinability is both its blessing and curse. We’re left with pieces, interesting on their own and sometimes together, but not quite enough to complete the puzzle.

70

Slashfilm by Chris Evangelista

The Forgiven runs the risk of becoming a thoughtless movie about a vile white man who is taught a lesson by wise brown people, but McDonagh, who also wrote the script, manages to (mostly) avoid that with a subtle touch.

58

The Playlist by Jason Bailey

McDonagh is such a smart writer that one spends much of the movie waiting for his script to exhibit some awareness of the trope, and to comment on it, but that acknowledgment never arrives – and as a result, this is his thinnest screenplay to date, flimsy enough that, in a lesser actor’s hands, it could really fall apart.

90

The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore

Scripted, directed and acted with intelligence and panache, it’s a very grown-up film but never a bore, a morally alert drama that leaves the scolding to us.

80

Variety by Peter Debruge

McDonagh’s characters are more complex than the initial caricatures make them out to be — perhaps, in the end, even pitiful — leaving audiences to decide how they feel about their ultimate fates.

60

Vanity Fair by Richard Lawson

Chastain pulls focus whenever she can, operating as one of the film’s main resources of levity and acerbic bite. I wish the movie had more of that energy—McDonagh keeps the proceedings oddly muted given the circumstances—but at least Chastain is there, pepping things up a bit.

83

IndieWire by Ryan Lattanzio

While this nasty film seems headed toward a conclusion where the rich win and the status quo is maintained, that’s abruptly shattered by a violent climax that assures that no one on either side of the divide is left without a bloodstain.

81

TheWrap by Steve Pond

Dark and unsettling, The Forgiven doesn’t ask us to like its characters, but it forces us to watch as privilege begins to shatter and people for whom everything feels inconsequential have to deal with consequences.

60

Screen Daily by Tim Grierson

The storytelling ends up a little too murky to be the grand commentary on privilege and exploitation McDonagh intends.

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