The Unforgivable

Sandra Bullock excels in a gripping Netflix thriller undermined by a little too much plot.

Sometimes, a single moment can change your life. And not always for the better. Every human on the planet has a reason for doing what they do, come good or bad. But not everyone will forgive you.

Ruth Slater (Sandra Bullock) has served twenty years inside and has just been let out early for good behaviour. But her new-found freedom is not much rosier than life behind bars, her halfway accommodation being a doss house in Seattle which she shares with heroin addicts and thieves. Bad luck conspires against her initial job prospects and she finally ends up on a graveyard shift cutting up fish. Then another moment comes along when her passion for carpentry wins her a second chance.

There is a blank look in Ruth’s face, a look pinned to the travails of her past. Everything she has ever lived for has been persistently beaten away, with only an ember of hope buried deep inside her chest. She has a younger sister and, contrary to the rules of her parole, she is determined to see her again…

The Unforgivable has all the ingredients for a heart-wrenching thriller. In fact, it may have too many ingredients. Whittled down to under two hours from a three-part British TV series, Nora Fingscheidt’s film unfolds in a series of narrative loops. It strives to hold our attention by holding back what it – and Ruth – knows. And as the pieces begin to fall into place, new complications are drawn into the action for drama’s sake. But there is quite enough drama already to pack out 112 minutes. Fingscheidt, who previously directed the award-winning System Crasher (2019) in her native Germany, exhibits a considerable command over her material, but lays on too much gloss to render it entirely credible. Sandra Bullock, whose dead gaze feels like it’s locked in stone, is on top form. However, it takes Viola Davis, in a supporting turn, to stab home the truth in one short scene with the utterance of just two words – the two most powerful words in the movie.

The Unforgivable cannot fail to move: its subject matter and execution are too strong for it not to. And it grips throughout, even when it lathers on the irony a little thick.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jon Bernthal, Richard Thomas, Linda Emond, Aisling Franciosi, Rob Morgan, Viola Davis, Emma Nelson, Will Pullen, Tom Guiry, Jessica McLeod, Andrew Francis, W. Earl Brown, Neli Kastrinos, Orlando Lucas, Jude Wilson, Viv Leacock.

Dir Nora Fingscheidt, Pro Graham King, Sandra Bullock and Veronica Ferres, Ex Pro Colin Vaines and Sally Wainwright, Screenplay Peter Craig, Hillary Seitz and Courtenay Miles, Ph Guillermo Navarro, Pro Des Kim Jennings, Ed Joe Walker and Stephan Bechinger, Music David Fleming and Hans Zimmer, Costumes Alex Bovaird, Sound Michael Babcock, Dialect coach Tony Alcantar.

GK Films/Fortis Films/Construction Film/Red Production Company-Netflix.
112 mins. USA/UK/Germany. 2021. US Rel: 24 November 2021. UK Rel: 26 November 2021. Cert. 15.