The Forgiven (2021) – Desert Slow Burner, Full of Repression, Class Divides, and Grief (Blu-Ray Review)

The Forgiven opens with married couple David and Jo Henninger (Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain) in Morocco for their wealthy friend Richard’s party (Matt Smith) and after sinking a bottle of wine and a squabble over directions to the remote palatial venue, they accidentally hit and kill a local teen with their car. The guests at the lavish party speculate over their absence and when the couple finally re-emerge, it’s with the boy’s body in the backseat and an anxious fear over what will happen to them next. Host Richard insists upon calling the police, although it’s clear we’re in a moral grey area here – as one guest says “People go missing here” and the cloud of uncertainty weighs heavily on the Henningers, despite David’s condescending and misogynistic tone. Host Richard and his artist boyfriend, Dally (Caleb Landry Jones), attempt to bat away their concerns while effectively demeaning the boy’s importance to saving their party and making their guests feel better, and sure enough, when they arrive the police take no further action.

The next day, the boy’s father arrives to claim the body and David is asked to accompany him to their local village to pay his respects and, it is suggested, pay the family off. Despite the initial refusal, he agrees and armed with fresh shirts and a thousand Euros, he leaves the safety of Richard’s palace for the engulfing desert. Jo stays behind at the lavish party and free from David, she partakes in the various debauched acts therein. David and Jo’s marriage isn’t a happy one and both take the time apart to reflect on their lives and their desires during their time in the desert, albeit at vastly different points of the social strata. David’s literal journey, along with the emotional journey they both go on, sees very different people emerging from the weekend and it’s clear neither of their lives will be the same again.

The Forgiven is an adaptation of a 2012 book by Lawrence Osbourne and it’s clear that the people who developed The White Lotus TV series have read this book. The themes are so similar – the luxury in which those with wealth live, while those whose home they have turned into their playground watch on, not quite in envy, not quite in pity, but a curious mix of the two. There’s a lot going on here – an exploration of grief, repression, class divides, colonialism, and the excesses of wealth, all wrapped up in the small group of individuals at the party, it’s no wonder they drink so much. Interestingly, it’s mostly US and UK guests at the party and that’s refreshing – this could easily have been a British-only affair given the nation’s colonial history, but no one is off the hook – the Americans, the French, there’s even a messy Australian party girl in the mix suggesting that no western nation gets away from shining a light on its excesses in the desert – while enjoying copious amounts cocaine at the same time.

David, of course, has a very different experience. Spending time with the boy’s father, facing up to his role in his death but also his role in his own life, is sobering for the ‘functional alcoholic’ who appears truly changed by the end of his experience, despite celebrating his release from the watchful eye of the Moroccans by downing a pint of beer at the gates of Richard’s palace. I was glad that this wasn’t an examination of covering things up and it was much more realistic for it – it’s as if David’s journey and Jo’s decadence at Richards’s party leave the couple more open than they have been in years and in two very different places.

A star-studded cast adorns this desert slow burner full of repression, class divides, cultural differences and grief. John Michael McDonagh’s (The Guard, Calvary, War on Everyone) The Forgiven doesn’t waste its cast of actors or its fabulous location. The vast desert looks both inviting and terrifying at the same time; comparisons with the ocean are well made. The use of local music adds to the atmosphere, with plenty of meaningful silences thrown in for good measure and space to breathe. This film never settles on a genre but, much like the journey of grief itself, can be funny, sad, scary and sometimes beautiful.

The Forgiven (2021)