
Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain excel as a super-wealthy married couple squabbling their way out of Tangiers in this daringly dark drama/thriller.
Quickly establishing himself as utterly loathsome, David (Fiennes) is a surgeon and functioning alcoholic.
He’s driving his wife Jo (Chastain) to a lavish three-day party in the middle of the Moroccan desert when they crash into a young Muslim boy (Omar Ghazaoui) and kill him.
A sardonic David and their louche host (Matt Smith) view this fatality as little more than a fleeting party buzzkill.
Jo is slightly more affected. But it’s only when the boy’s father (a stern, desert nomad, played by Ismael Kanater) shows up and demands David come to bury his son, that any moral reckoning is considered.
It’s always a bold move to make your characters this unlikeable.


So it’s just as well that the cast, which also includes Alex Jennings and Caleb Landry Jones, is absolutely superb.
And you’ll forgive (ho ho) a lot when you’re relishing one of Fiennes’ very finest performances to date – not something you’d want to miss out on.
Elsewhere, the luxe location is extraordinary. A gorgeously styled palace in the middle of the desert, created for the debaucheries of the jet set while staffed by dirt-poor peasants, it’s at once enviably glamorous and revoltingly opulent.
Directed and written by John Michael McDonagh (The Guard), The Forgiven is another tough tale of brutally exacted justice. And like McDonagh’s previous films (Ned Kelly, Calvary), it’s a journey not everyone will want to take. But even if you do, the dark and abrupt ending comes as something of a slap in the face.
The Forgiven is out on Friday in cinemas