The Forgiven (2017)
After the end of Apartheid, Archbishop Desmond Tutu meets with a brutal murderer seeking redemption.
Director:
Roland JofféStars:
Country:
UKLanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
9 March 2018 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Oproštaj See more »Filming Locations:
South AfricaBox Office
Budget:
$15,000,000 (estimated)Company Credits
Production Co:
Roland Joffe's fictionalized drama concerning
Archbishop Desmond Tutu's early days as chairman of South Africa's Truth
and Reconciliation Commission reveals its theatrical origins all too
obviously. Featuring excellent performances by Forest Whitaker as Tutu
and Eric Bana as an imprisoned racist government death-squad assassin
seeking clemency, The Forgiven
tackles its important political and social issues in an overly talky
fashion. The film has its merits, but it represents a significant
comedown for the director of such classics as The Mission and The Killing Fields.
Based on Michael Ashton's play The Archbishop and the Antichrist (the playwright
collaborated on the screenplay with Joffe), the film begins with a
1955-set prologue depicting a horrific childhood experience involving
one of the main characters. The setting then changes to the
post-apartheid, mid-1990s after Tutu was appointed to his position by
then-President Nelson Mandela.
When Tutu receives a highly articulate letter
pleading for clemency while quoting Milton and Plato in the process,
written by convicted murderer Piet Blomfeld (Bana, playing a fictional
character), he becomes intrigued enough to visit the prisoner in his
cell. There, the two men have the first of a series of intense
back-and-forth conversations about issues relating to guilt and
forgiveness that inevitably make The Forgiven feel stagy.
The stilted dialogue doesn't help matters. While
pondering whether or not to meet Blomfeld, Tutu is warned by a
colleague, "He's a psychopath and convicted killer." The archbishop
responds, "I know who he is. No one is beyond redemption." And when Tutu
finally does show up at the prison, Blomfeld smugly says, "I knew you
would come, I knew you wouldn't be able to resist," sounding like
Hannibal Lecter greeting Clarice.
To pad out the central storyline, the film includes
several subplots. One involves a bereft mother (Thandi Makhubele,
delivering a wrenching performance) who begs Tutu to help find her
missing teenage daughter, possibly the victim of a government hit squad.
This scenario has the unintentionally awkward effect of turning the
archbishop into a sleuth, as if he were the central character in a crime
procedural. The other depicts Blomfeld's strenuous efforts to stay
alive in a prison wracked by racial tensions, gang violence and corrupt
guards, which has the feel of countless other prison dramas. The jumbled
interweaving of the different plotlines has the effect of making the
narrative confusing and the pacing sluggish, although the final
courtroom scene, featuring a charged appearance by the distraught mother
of the missing girl, packs an undeniable emotional punch.
Saddled with an unfortunately distracting
prosthetic nose, Whitaker delivers a finely nuanced performance,
conveying Tutu's formidable inner strength and dignity as well as his
compassion. Bana has the showier role and makes the most of it, using
his impressive physicality and fierce charisma to make his despicable
character suitably frightening but also very human.
Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
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