The Forgiven

Synopsis

Director John Michael McDonagh (Calvary, The Guard) has expertly adapted Lawrence Osbourne’s best-selling psychological thriller, The Forgiven, in this thorny moral parable. Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain star as the morally questionable couple on the brink of a divorce in this thrilling psychological drama.

The Forgiven hinges on its undeniably wicked yet deliciously prickly portrayal of adult affairs. Upper-class Londoners David (Ralph Fiennes) and Jo Henninger (Jessica Chastain) accidentally kill a young boy while speeding through a Moroccan desert to attend an extravagant party at a lavish villa. After arriving late with the soiree in full effect, the couple tries to cover up the incident. However, the boy’s father creates complications for the guilty pair when he arrives seeking justice. Forced to deal with their horrific act, David and Jo’s decadent weekend away in the desert is turning into a more of a nightmare scenario.

With McDonagh’s black sense of humour lurking below the surface creates for an unsettling but captivating watch. A well-executed dark comedy that shows that perhaps a clean conscience can’t be bought after all.