FILM
THE FORGIVEN
Desert storm: Jessica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes as the privileged Jo and David.
★★
OUT 2 SEPTEMBER /
CERT
18
/
117
MINS
DIRECTOR John Michael McDonagh
CAST Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, Matt Smith, Christopher Abbott
PLOT On their way to a lavish party in the desert, a wealthy husband (Fiennes) and wife (Chastain) hit a young Moroccan boy with their car and kill him. The festivities go on while the husband seeks his redemption.
THE TOXICITY OF white privilege and wealth seems to be having an on-screen moment. From Rian Johnson’s upcoming Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery to HBO’s comedy drama The White Lotus to Swedish provocateur Ruben Östlund’s Triangle Of Sadness, stories about the misdeeds and bigotry of the upper classes have become a mainstay of our cultural landscape. The latest work from John Michael McDonagh (The Guard, Calvary) treads similar ground, but with mixed results.