Rent The Forgiven (2022)

Sexed-up Downton Abbey for the 21st century in the Moroccan desert - The Forgiven review by Philip in Paradiso

A married couple, David and Jo Henninger (Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain, excellent), travel to Morocco. The relationship between the 2 of them is tense and unhappy. They rent a car to cross the desert to a luxurious villa where an old friend of David's is organizing a party for a select group of guests, who are into drugs (cocaine), heavy drinking and sex. On the way, David accidentally hits and kills a young local teenager, who seemed to have wanted to stop the car in order to sell some souvenirs to the couple. The movie develops from there. David, more particularly, is caught up in a chain of events that will challenge and test him.

There is something strangely neo-colonial in the setting of the film, which feels almost like the 1930s or 1940s rather than the 21st century: privileged upper-class British, European and American 'creatives' and others gathering in a sumptuous villa, served by the local Moroccan staff. There is also a whiff of depravity about the guests and the gay couple hosting them - a motley crew who are, mostly, as you would expect, jaded, blasé, sarcastic, hedonistic and cynical.

And yet, thanks to the story line, through David's experience, the film does attempt to explore the nature of the interaction between the Westerners and the Moroccans, who are not, therefore, reduced to the status of bystanders in their own country, as often in this kind of story. The result is an unsettling film. It is not devoid of clichés, and yet it is interesting and thought-provoking. Overall, a good film, thanks also to the extremely good acting of the 2 lead characters, David and his wife.

Brilliant dialogue - The Forgiven review by DL

The dialogue is excellent throughout, fairly slow but a very good watch and highly recommended.

Interesting If Disjointed Drama - The Forgiven review by GI

A compelling yet strangely uneven and frustrating dark comedy thriller about being humbled within a conflict of culture narrative. Set in Morocco the story centres on alcoholic David (Ralph Fiennes), a boorish racist and his younger and very bored wife, Jo (Jessica Chastain) who are driving to a lavish party being held by an eccentric gay couple (Matt Smith & Caleb Landry Jones) at their huge desert located villa. On the way, David, drunk and arguing with Jo, hits and kills a local boy. The ramifications of this sets off the chain of events as David is semi forced to accompany the boy's father back to his village. In many ways the film is a bit of a hit and miss as it always seems we're denied more detail. The debauchery at the party conflicts with the austere locals as the cultural differences are highlighted almost begging for a climactic explosion. At the same time we follow David's plight as he is humbled before a grieving father and he doesn't know whether violence is coming his way. Fiennes is wonderfully odious as David and Chastain really zings as his wife who, finding herself without her husband decides to enjoy the party!! The film is neatly well balanced between the two centres of the narrative and yet at times it feels a little hurried and unfulfilling and yet, ultimately, it's a film worth checking out.