Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
Just deserts
When Ralph Fiennes’ odious jet-setter hits a Moroccan boy with his car on the way to a party, he’s forced to face his actions by the lad’s father
THE FORGIVEN (18) ★★★✩✩
ANCHORED by a formidable lead performance from Ralph Fiennes as an acid-tongued, high-functioning alcoholic, this slow-burning morality tale cranks up tension as grief collides head-on with guilt and a nervous quest for atonement seems destined to end in failure.
Richard Galloway (Matt Smith) and his wine-guzzling partner Dally (Caleb Landry Jones) invite a coterie of odious, privileged friends to their villa in the Moroccan desert for a weekend of lavish revelry and self-congratulation.
The guest list includes British aristocrat Lord Swanthorne (Alex Jennings), French journalist Isabelle Peret (MarieJosee Croze) and American financial analyst Tom Day (Christopher Abbott).
House staff led by Hamid ( Mourad Zaoui) are horrified by wanton displays of hedonism, drug-taking and sexual promiscuity.
British doctor David Henninger (Fiennes) and his American writer wife Jo (Jessica Chastain) get lost en route from Tangier. They are immersed in an argument when young fossil seller Driss (Omar Ghazaoui) steps into the desert road in front of their car to ply his wares.
The Henningers arrive late at Richard’s soiree, claiming the boy’s death was an accident.
Driss’s father Abdellah (Ismael Kanater) materialises with an English-speaking associate (Said Taghmaoui) to claim his son’s body.
The grieving patriarch insists David should witness the teenager’s burial and the pompous Brit reluctantly obliges.
Blessed with finely calibrated performances, The Forgiven is most compelling when Fiennes is on screen, marinating in his character’s discomfort.
The pacing is generally glacial and every time writerdirector John Michael McDonagh cuts away to the manifold transgressions within the villa, the two-hour running time seems to stretch, without the reward of an emotional pay-off.
■ In cinemas Friday