Forgiven

Dont see the hate of this move. just a good movie about the human race!

Sometimes a film does not need to be original or show artistic flair when telling its story. This is particularly the case when portraying momentous and in this case tragic historic events. And critics always searching for "originality" or "flair" when reviewing a film can at times consider no context when truly understanding the intention of a movie such as this one.

A film can certainly do history justice by purely being authentic with strong and brave performances as is the case in The Forgiven.

A movie about the fallout of South Africa's transformation from apartheid to a fragile state of confusion and change, runs the risk of "trying too hard", embellishment or falling victim to basic flaws such as bad acting or poor story telling. However this film is executed perfectly and the performances from Whitaker and Bana were simply outstanding.

I had a job to recognise Forest Whittaker when the movie started because the make up was so good, and his normal facial expressions and mannerisms were just not there for this movie, quite rightly so to because he portrayed Desmond Tutu so very well.

Eric Bana's portrayal was so brilliant that you really hated the man and became engrossed in the interplay between him and Tutu, which in itself was interesting to watch.

I won't go into the details and spoil everything, but one of the scenes towards the end of the movie was one of the most heart-wrenching scenes I have ever seen in any movie, anywhere, and surely the actors must have received a standing ovation from the crew after it was filmed.

Don't be put off by the poor reviews, because this is a movie worth watching and you may well learn something along the way.

I've never written an IMDB review before but am provoked to do so by the current rating of 5.8, which is so far off the mark that I am shocked. Whitaker and Bana both give Oscar-worthy performances. This is Bana's best performance ever --- he makes his character truly terrifying. The interaction between Bana and Whitaker is so intense that it should be a film-study classic. This great story weaves together the best and worst things about humans. A great story, too, and an important educational lesson.

Bana delivers a compelling performance that sent chills down my spine, and the exchanges between Bana's Blomfield and Whitaker's Tutu had me absolutely glued to the screen!

I thought the two main characters were brilliantly supported by all of the actors in this film, with a particularly good performance by Thandi Makhubele.

The Forgiven has a solid storyline that handles it's sensitive subject matter well.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie really cannot understand why it doesn't have a higher rating - which is why I felt compelled to write my first ever IMDB review!