Los perdonados

The sets and landscapes are breathtaking. The cinematography outstanding. The performances are all stellar. And even though the pacing is slow enough to make the 117 min runtime feel much longer, writer and director John Michael McDonagh still manages to capture every special close-up shot and proverbial comment well enough to drive the hidden messages right through your heart.

However, as pretty and shiny as this film is, all the bloated intrigue and drama fails to deliver the true depth of the film. There's just too much filler and not enough substance. This film needed the mysteries and messaging to be harder, and the shallow pretentious eye-candy to be softer. Even the predicable ending could've been more exciting.

Nevertheless, a beautifully shot film with excellent performances that still manages to deliver a thought provoking message when morality is crossed with spoiled and entitled privilege, and the consequences that follow. It's a great one-time watch and a well deserved 7/10 from me.

I don't know the book and this is a movie, and thus a review of the movie. The movie was full of cliches and I had a feeling that it tried to be more than it could do. It was trying to be Agatha Christie kind of mysterious story, failing. There were wannabe characters of this and that which though lacked the charisma and the character. But the trying showed. Great actors Jessica and Ralph didn't shine. Not because they were bad but the movie just didn't work. It got slightly better on the second half, but still left lukewarm feelings.

Thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The writer takes two extremes of western and arab culture - represented here by a group of hedonist aristocrats and a desert tribe - and uses an incident that brings them together to examine how they interact. The core of the story is the interaction between dignity and honour culture, and we see how good men can be swayed to both good and bad acts by the influence of their respective value systems. The film neither patronises the viewer nor indulges in self-regard. The dialogue snaps along and the cast deliver authentic performances - there are no phone-ins here.

The sad thing is that the world mostly consists of these shallow, little people who are buried in their own pettiness and cruelty and think that they hold the world inside their small feasts and despite their prestigious schooling and affluence, they remain small minded and uneducated.

Ralf Feines is the best thing that happened to this film, great support also by Ismael Kanater and Matt Smith. I can't say the same though about the flat Jessica Chastain and Christopher Abbott. Very good cinematography, amateuristic direction. All in all, this had the prospects of being really good but lacked in the details.

Whilst The Forgiven definitely feels its length it's still a really good drama that skillfully critiques many of the worst tendencies of the upper class whilst wisely humanising those who are often depicted as stereotypes.

Ralph Fiennes gives a great lead performance that's unafraid to be unlikable and buoyed by his solid chemistry with Saïd Taghmaoui, whose one of the most human, earnest and likeable characters in the whole film. Ismael Kanater is also great, equally human and full of heartbreaking pain and anguish.

John Michael McDonagh's direction is really good, prioritising nice framing and some clever transitions over mobility. The old Hollywood style credits are a nice touch too. The music by Lorne Balfe is really evocative and memorable if a little overused.