It is impossible to elide the shock ending when
discussing John Michael McDonagh's _The Forgiven_,
so readers who have not seen this film should
stop. (Not that there are actual readers on this
board ...)

The Moroccan teen who accompanied Driss (Omar
Ghazaoui) to the ill-fated first encounter with the
Henningers (David and Jo, Ralph Fiennes and
Jessica Chastain respectively) forces them off
the road at the same spot where they ran over Driss.
This time David stops the SUV in time. He is resigned
to his fate, and the teen shoots him dead. Fade to
black (the credits helpfully having already run at
the film's beginning).

The shock is that there is no surprise at all.
This is the most logical, almost over-determined,
denouement. (I was half-expecting a drastic twist,
like David being spared while everyone else is
slaughtered by ISIS.)

The finale is all of one piece with the endings in
McDonagh's previous films _The Guard_ and _Calvary_.
(I haven't caught up with _War on Everyone_.) In
_Calvary_, Father James (Brendan Gleeson) stoically
shows up to his fatal appointment with a child abuse
victim, and in his own way atones for the sins of his
Church. In _The Guard_, policeman Boyle (Gleeson
again, more colorful than stoic this time) probably
dies in a suicidal attack on the drug lords, atoning
for police corruption.

David Henninger is far more guilty than James or Boyle,
and he slowly comes to accept it. But he also dies for
the complicity of his wife, his hedonistic friends, and
the whole of Western culture. Those "friends" treat
Driss' death as a minor annoyance; even his wife Jo,
though worried, parties on and takes a lover. Cutting
between the penitent's journey (eerily reminiscent
of Fienne's in _The English Patient_) and the revelers'
excess, McDonagh makes the point that it could have been
anyone at the party. (We know we are not in "woke"
country when, early on, the gay couple in their desert
palace, and their clever Muslim servants, are shown to
despise each other.) To underscore the point, the
Moroccan "woman-of-color" media-star Leila acts no
differently from the Westerners.

David starts out more _The Guard_ than _Calvary_. At
first, constantly drinking, he fancies himself a great
wit, bickering with Jo and hurling racist insults at
the servants. He buries the dead boy's ID so
that the body will remain anonymous; when that fails,
he petulantly dismisses Driss as a "nobody." Even
David's hosts can't stand him, never mind the Muslims.
Together they talk the party pooper into driving into
the desert with the mourning father, falsely promising
that his cell phone would still work. Everyone in
the know sees him as dead man walking; they are just
as callous as he is. In his own way, David is a
nobody, too.

The desert's solemn purity sobers him (or is it the
enforced alcohol ban?). At the sun-baked hole-in-
the-ground that used to be Driss' home, the father
tells stories about Driss, humanizes him. Driss has
stolen the family's pricey fossil. He has hoped to
trade it for a ticket to Casablanca, for the good
life, to find girls. (Morocoo has "evil" fossils
where other Arabic countries have crude oil; both
came from the same source.) Not coincidentally, David
is the only other character with a backstory. His
fellow guests paint him as a politically incorrect
prankster, an upper class version of Brendan Glesson
in _The Guard_. He was once a successful doctor
and must have been quite a catch; now he is being
sued and wears self-loathing on his sleeves.

Chastain, reunited with Fiennes (_Coriolanus_)
and Morocco (_The 355_), should be credited for
her good taste -- signing up with the serious artist
McDonagh -- even if her role is to accessorize
David. I am sure the Julliard School graduate
has created copious background for her character
Jo, the most refined party guest among the trust
fund managers and naked nymphs there. She reads
Gide's _The Immoralist_, was a children's book
writer (her last hit being 8 years ago). She is
married 12 years, is now starting to reconsider,
and succumbs to temptations in the exotic palace
(cocaine, an affair). Who is Jo? A socialite
who graduated Oxford? Was she an actress/model
before transitioning to writing? (I'm thinking
Kate Beckinsale.) Marie-Josee Croze, as a French
celebrity photographer tailgating Leila, brings
much needed debate about the French colonial
legacy.

Saïd Taghmaoui, who has played the French Arab
sidekick all his life, is at least given a juicy
variation on that theme as the father's confidant
and David's driver. The film does not glorify
the vengeful father or the spiteful Moroccan
servants -- who could have walked in from _Gosford
Park_. Everyone else is just loathsome; Caleb
Landry Jones positively looks like a ghoul.
Yet McDonagh, ever the humanist, implies that
any of them can be redeemed. The main difference
between this film and McDonagh's previous work
may be the apparent larger budget, well-spent on
the desert vistas and opulent palatial mansion.
The massive swimming pool seems especially
extravagant, and provides a sharp contrast with
the cramped cages that make up Driss' abode.
Criticizing this excess is like shooting fish in
a barrel. But against all odds, _The Forgiven_
turns out to be the most thoughtful McDonagh film
I have seen.

(for A.)

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