All-Seeing Eye of the Desert: A Review of "The Forgiven"
A taut thriller about retribution and postcolonial evil starring Rafe Fiennes and Jessica Chastain.
A wealthy couple, David and Joe Hanninger, are on their way to a friend's party in Morocco. On the way, they run over a young guy, a fossil seller. The heroes decide to pretend that nothing serious has happened and quietly continue their vacation. The police do nothing, but his father arrives to collect the dead boy's body, which sets off a chain of unpredictable events.
John Michael McDonagh's ("Calvary," "Once Upon a Time in Ireland") new project continues the theme of characters' legitimate encounters with death and justice in different forms. "Forgiven" is based on the novel of the same name by Lawrence Osborne and has quite a standard for such stories of the beginning, structure and epilogue. However, the narrative itself, full of sarcasm towards the elites and their colonial blindness, is quite capable of captivating audiences who have suffered from "adult" sharp plot pictures.
The Hanninger marriage is slowly coming apart at the seams. David (Fiennes), a respected oncologist, not long ago falsely diagnosed a patient, causing her to sue. Jo (Chastain), a forgotten children's writer, hasn't touched paper in eight years. The trip becomes another escape from an unbearable reality where dripping tears are wiped away with wads of money, blood is easily washed away, and red sequins go out to dinner. David's alcoholism becomes the cause of the accident. An unfortunate "harmless" glass of champagne opens the man's eyes to his own helplessness and fear of the imminent death for which his entire worthless life was conceived.
The murdered boy's name was Driss, an important detail that keeps the central couple on their toes, for David buried the documents not far from the scene, but he remembered the name as a sign of destiny. His father comes for Driss and gives David an ultimatum: he must go with him and bury the boy. This is the custom, to which David, with all his inherent "white" privilege, indignantly compares them to a terrorist organization, but eventually agrees. There is a fate in the air from which one cannot escape; isn't it better to accept it himself, on his own terms, it seems to David.
During the absence of his spouse, Joe decides to forget himself and go on an orgy with the American Tom, a financial analyst and donjouan. Changing witty remarks and indulge in animal sex, Jo gradually comes to the conclusion that David it little interesting and that the reason for the creative suffocation lies in him, suppressing her impulses. However, on the screen and in the script to explore the matrimonial matter almost no time, instead indulging in resonance.
The Irishman John Michael McDonagh, in contrast to his brother Martin ("To Bottom in Bruges," "Three Billboards"), is more straightforward in his films, so he spouts satirical anger at Third World exploiters and their inherent racism and xenophobia without much piety. After the success of Parasites and the continuing trend to "eat the rich," few will be surprised by the resonance. McDonagh begins literally from the end credits and manages to build a fable full of rejection in two hours with Moroccan landscapes and solid performances by Fiennes and Chastain. The duo previously worked in "Coriolanus," another story of a toxic long-term relationship.
The humor of "Forgiven" is the responsibility of a couple of homosexuals who throw a party (Matt Smith and Caleb Landry Jones) and a whole panopticon of their guests, from an immortal Australian (Abby Lee) to a woke French photographer who muses on the devouring imperialism of Americans. Here, as intended, no one is pitied, only the aforementioned death is satisfying. Tired servants spit into their masters' cocktails, spout wise sayings and consider starting a Twitter account, and the boneless tongues of the rich soon find themselves metaphorically "chopped off." The demonic fossils sold by the innocently murdered Driss come after David as vengeance, despite the granting of forgiveness by the boy's father. But David is impressed, has had time to culturally learn the lessons of Africa (a reference to "The Betrayed Gardener," also with Fiennes) and learned all about his false reality long ago, from which he walks away with almost a smile on his lips. "Forgiven" will seem a brief but for some an impressive excursion into a hell of a human soul full of doubt and decadence.
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