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
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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