Shadows on the Wall | The Forgiven

The Forgiven

dir-scr John Michael McDonagh
prd Elizabeth Eves, Trevor Matthews, Nick Gordon, John Michael McDonagh
with Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, Matt Smith, Christopher Abbott, Said Taghmaoui, Ismael Kanater, Caleb Landry Jones, Abbey Lee, Mourad Zaoui, Marie-Josee Croze, Alex Jennings, Ben Affan
release US 1.Jul.22,
UK 2.Sep.22
21/UK 1h57

TORONTO FILM FEST

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There's a terrific sense of decadence in this culture-clash drama about privileged people putting on a show of wealth in rural Morocco. Writer-director John Michael McDonagh keeps the story moving at a brisk pace, while skilfully honing in on vulnerabilities in each of the intriguing characters. It's a complex depiction of some enormous issues, although the film's fragmented structure and dense themes make it more academic than involving.

In his private kasbah in the Atlas Mountains, Richard (Smith) is hosting a lavish party with his partner Dally (Jones) and his womanising friend Tom (Abbott). Driving there, guests Jo and David (Chastain and Fiennes) fatally hit a teen. It was dark and probably not his fault, but David was inebriated as usual. The police call it an accidental death, but the boy's father Abdellah (Kanater) insists that David travel with him back to his village to attend the burial, accompanied by translator Anouar (Taghmaoui). Meanwhile, Jo remains behind as the hedonistic party carries on.

What unfolds exacerbates fissures in Jo and David's marriage, even as they remain brittly tight-lipped. She struggles with what has happened, while he feels above it all. And David's spiralling prejudice doesn't help smooth tensions that arise as he travels to a place he can't pronounce. Back in the kasbah, amid fireworks, music and food, Jo's doubts about David deepen, so she pursues a liaison with Tom. And watching everything silently, the servants privately reveal their loathing for these amoral foreigners.

David and Jo embark on distinct individual journeys. Fiennes plays David as a jaded, impatient man who reluctantly begins soul-searching, perhaps because he's unsure if he'll get out of this alive. By contrast, Chastain's Jo is both thoughtful and callous. In the fine ensemble, Smith is a standout, underplaying the bon vivant Richard. And Kanater gives Abdellah some terrific textures as a grieving father who understands more about how the world works than anyone else in the story.

"Men like that think God is blind," Abdellah notes, before affirming his own dark ideas of divine justice. Snappy conversations swirl around economic, political and religious disparities, avoiding any simplistic explanations. This means that issues of justice and forgiveness continually twist and turn. The idea that only poor people are decent or respectable is laid on a bit thickly, slightly undercut by that warped British sense of honour. All of which leaves the film feeling intriguing and provocative, but perhaps not as moving as it should be.

themes, language, violence, drugs 28.Jun.22

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