THE FORGIVEN MOVIE REVIEW

A wealthy collection of bored elites gather out in the Moroccan desert for a party thrown by a snarky couple (Matt Smith and Caleb Landry Jones) but there’s a problem. One couple (Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain) while on their way to the location accidentally hit a local boy on the road and kill him. Taking the body with them back to the party, which is generally not a good way to liven things up, leads to the father of the boy coming there and requesting that Fiennes comes back with him to his home, as this is ‘the way things are done here’. Fiennes agrees and leaves with him and another man (Saïd Taghmaoui) on a very long desert journey with an uncertain moral destination. Meanwhile the party keeps going, for whatever that’s worth. And generally speaking, Chris, Frank, Alan, and Marco didn’t think it was worth much: the party half of the movie, anyway. But still, any movie by John Michael McDonagh (The Guard, Calvary) is well worth a look and although our reviewers didn’t all agree on The Forgiven, it certainly led to a spirited discussion about it.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE/TRAILER

DIRECTED BY: John Michael McDonagh

STARRING: Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, Matt Smith, Ismael Kanater, Caleb Landry Jones, Saïd Taghmaoui, Christopher Abbott, Abbey Lee, Mourad Zaoui, Marie-Josée Croze, Alex Jennings

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 

Christopher Lawrence Cox (Founder, Da Boss)

Born in the wilds of northern Virginia, Chris managed to put all of his survival skills to use and barely escaped with his life to Austin Texas in 1992 where ever since he’s dabbled in everything from plumber’s assistant to sandwich maker, from band to bar management. An opportunity to see theatrical release films for free by becoming a critic on a local public access show called “The Reel Deal” turned into a full-time job when Chris and his friends decided to take it to the internet. They built the site Spill.com, adding multiple podcasts and animated features, to no small amount of success. During this time, a fortuitous friendship sprung up between Chris and young Brian Salisbury, who was also a local film critic, and they merged their forces of will, and their laundry list of ideas for shows, to eventually build this community of critics. While Brian eventually followed his heart to a new family, Chris continues on with a cast of colorful folks from all over the country (and a few others). You can also check out Chris in his videocast, along with Martin Thomas and Danni Danger, that One Of Us does with our friends at Bell of Lost Souls: Crossover Event. He also regularly guests on the video game website Rage Select. Follow Chris on Twitter and Facebook and check out his Amazon Wish List.

 

 

Frank Calvillo (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad)

Born and raised in South Texas, Frank currently lives in Austin and has been in love with movies ever since his father showed him some Three Stooges shorts when he was five years old. Today he loves all kinds of film, regardless of era, country, budget or genre. He believes every film has an audience and is at least one person’s favorite movie. After writing for Sight & Sound and Slackerwood, he now writes for Cinapse where his increasingly random taste in all flavors of cinema (from Rashomon to Ma...