The Forgiven
Roadside Attractions | Release Date: July 1, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
20
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinKim HughesJun 30, 2022
McDonagh’s sumptuous version of the novel —which premiered at TIFF last year — is utterly faithful and thus note perfect, capturing its resonant ruminations on social inequity, racism, and cultural tourism in a sweeping Moroccan desert Sheltering Sky novelist Paul Bowles would recognize. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeSep 14, 2021
Scripted, directed and acted with intelligence and panache, it’s a very grown-up film but never a bore, a morally alert drama that leaves the scolding to us. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 29, 2022
The Forgiven holds us in its grips until the very last frame. Read full review
83
UproxxVince ManciniJul 14, 2022
The Forgiven is the rare adult drama that doesn’t feel like a museum piece. It lives and breathes, it teases and provokes, the kind of movie that seems designed to be discussed and fought over — in a world where adults might still do such things. Read full review
83
IndieWireRyan LattanzioSep 14, 2021
While this nasty film seems headed toward a conclusion where the rich win and the status quo is maintained, that’s abruptly shattered by a violent climax that assures that no one on either side of the divide is left without a bloodstain. Read full review
81
TheWrapSteve PondSep 17, 2021
Dark and unsettling, The Forgiven doesn’t ask us to like its characters, but it forces us to watch as privilege begins to shatter and people for whom everything feels inconsequential have to deal with consequences. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 14, 2021
McDonagh’s characters are more complex than the initial caricatures make them out to be — perhaps, in the end, even pitiful — leaving audiences to decide how they feel about their ultimate fates. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJack SmartJul 6, 2022
Discrimination, exoticization, willful ignorance, poorly disguised disdain for local customs—you name it, these vacationing Westerners have it. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedJul 5, 2022
The Forgiven is not a journey every viewer will want to make, but it’s a rewarding experience to watch Ralph Fiennes play the emotional subtexts of such a complicated role with such power and nuance. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 30, 2022
In many ways, The Forgiven feels like a CliffsNotes version of a longer, more complex narrative. But, even considering that numerous subplots might benefit from a mini-series approach to the material, the transformation of the central character is handled in a powerful, credible manner. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 29, 2022
Alternately stark and lurid, poetic and very well acted, it’s a return to form for McDonagh, who rather lost the plot with “War on Everyone.” Read full review
70
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaSep 14, 2021
The Forgiven runs the risk of becoming a thoughtless movie about a vile white man who is taught a lesson by wise brown people, but McDonagh, who also wrote the script, manages to (mostly) avoid that with a subtle touch. Read full review
62
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerJul 5, 2022
It’s telling that The Forgiven has the shape of a long, dark night of the soul, while actually taking place over several days. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeSep 4, 2022
Lorne Balfe’s sparsely used music leaves plenty of open spaces for the drama to breathe, as if inviting the audience to fill in the blanks with an internal accompaniment (tragic? Comedic? Ironic?) of their own choosing. Read full review
60
Time OutTrevor JohnstonAug 22, 2022
The Forgiven takes the harder road, and actually proves more engrossing and haunting in retrospect than when you’re actually watching it. In an era of instant gratification, that, for all the film’s evident flaws, is still worth chin-stroking respect. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredMartin CarrJun 30, 2022
The Forgiven should have been an epic morality tale with acres of grey area, but somehow misses its mark, forever scuppered by a cliched ending and a conclusive lack of closure for audiences. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisJun 30, 2022
Fiennes peels David in layers, unraveling this man until you see his hollow interior. Read full review
60
Vanity FairRichard LawsonSep 17, 2021
Chastain pulls focus whenever she can, operating as one of the film’s main resources of levity and acerbic bite. I wish the movie had more of that energy—McDonagh keeps the proceedings oddly muted given the circumstances—but at least Chastain is there, pepping things up a bit. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 14, 2021
The storytelling ends up a little too murky to be the grand commentary on privilege and exploitation McDonagh intends. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 14, 2021
The film’s strange scrappy indefinability is both its blessing and curse. We’re left with pieces, interesting on their own and sometimes together, but not quite enough to complete the puzzle. Read full review
58
ColliderChase HutchinsonJul 1, 2022
Even with Fiennes and Chastain giving it their all in a manner that makes the story far more engaging than you would expect, they can’t carry it all on their own. The most ambitious and audacious performances in the world can’t overcome storytelling that is otherwise safe to the point of being timid. Read full review
58
The PlaylistJason BaileySep 14, 2021
McDonagh is such a smart writer that one spends much of the movie waiting for his script to exhibit some awareness of the trope, and to comment on it, but that acknowledgment never arrives – and as a result, this is his thinnest screenplay to date, flimsy enough that, in a lesser actor’s hands, it could really fall apart. Read full review
50
Little White LiesJosh Slater-WilliamsAug 31, 2022
Considering McDonagh’s previous writing form, you’re left expecting some subversion or commentary on this overused device – but it never comes. Read full review
50
Screen RantAlex HarrisonJul 1, 2022
Given some time to think on it later, viewers might have trouble pinning down what it actually had to say about all those thorny subjects it seemed to be about. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireJul 1, 2022
McDonagh’s film is well-crafted throughout but ultimately has nothing fresh or insightful to say about the ugliness of white privilege. Read full review
50
The Film StageEthan VestbyJun 29, 2022
It’s a work by people who aren’t talentless or stupid but lack the perspective to say or present anything an audience looking to have its worldview reaffirmed wouldn’t already agree with. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyJun 28, 2022
The Forgiven wants to have things both ways. Oh, look at how odiously these odious people behave — and let’s keep gawking at their odiousness. Sneering at slick emptiness becomes itself a kind of slick emptiness, only worse, since it’s self-congratulatory. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineMark HansonSep 18, 2021
Whatever satire of white elite society is intended by The Forgiven has been blunted by monotony. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 1, 2022
The Forgiven concentrates on awful people doing awful things they’ll pay for unless they can avoid it, but as morality play it’s stuck in a rut, with an ending that just seems to have stumped McDonagh – it dissipates. Read full review
40
EmpireCaitlin QuinlanSep 1, 2022
The stiffness in the writing and general lack of subtlety leave this feeling underwhelming and overwrought. As a moral fable, The Forgiven offers little genuine critique. Read full review
40
The IndependentClarisse LoughreySep 1, 2022
It’s obvious why this cast were attracted to The Forgiven – an actor’s most thrilling challenge is to find the brokenness hidden in between the cruellest of words. Fiennes and Chastain have always excelled in this area, as they do here. But the ugliness quickly wears thin. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Roxana HadadiJul 1, 2022
It’s too gutless to actually untangle the web of selfishness, Islamophobia, and privilege it weaves around its protagonists. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesRobert DanielsJul 1, 2022
While The Forgiven isn’t concerned with making David a better person — rather to get him to fully grasp his guilt — McDonagh’s methods can’t distinguish the film from the long list of stories about white folks learning lessons at the expense of brown people. There may have been higher ideals in mind, but “The Forgiven” fails to gracefully reach them. Read full review
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