Review of The Unforgivable (2021) by Butterballer1 — 13 Dec 2021

If you don't mind slow monotonous and sometimes lecturing take on redemption with many great cast members and a Sandra Bullock who looks like she just recently shaved her mustache after 48 years for the first time, you'll like this film.

Sandra Bullock does her best to appear unattractive and dour for nearly 2 hours in this dark film. And, surprisingly, it works.

The film, itself, however, is a mixed bag with a powerful final reveal that nearly wipes away all the imperfections of the film with its emotional punch, despite its implausibility. This is both a compliment and a criticism since this film is not as tight as something like The Sixth Sense, whose ending twist is legendary (and somewhat of a cliche now after numerous repetitions). However, the script then ruins the great reveal with ANOTHER huge and poorly conceived final encounter that truly makes no sense and needed a serious rewrite. It is obvious that the writer was trying to bring the story full circle to complete a powerful arc reminiscent of the great film Levity, but it just didn't earn it as that film does. This is made all the more obvious by the fact that we come to the final scene, and then tack on a needless race to another location for no good literary or logical reason that completely ruins the pacing. Why not just have her go there to begin with? The audience already knows what is going on...

To its credit, it seems as though the filmmakers tried desperately to check off an endless array of obligatory woke checkboxes without intentionally beating the audience over the head with them. Alas, there are so many mandatory checkboxes now that such a task is impossible so the artistry and film definitely do suffer. Unearned and transparent political jabs at the American judicial and prison and police system as well as pandering casting choices try to be subtle but are so numerous that they do break the spell of the story. However, it isn't necessarily bad enough to ruin the movie.

The movie itself has several new faces in it who perform admirably as well as several solid performances from great actors who are always dependable. However, few of them are allowed to shine as they should if given better dialogue or purpose. One scene near the end of the film includes a supporting character cheating with his sibling's girlfriend but gives no context for this or purpose. It is just thrown in like an afterthought just to give the two dull characters something to do, and then never hinted at or mentioned before or afterward. This is frustrating because both actors had done a fine job portraying these two characters until this point.

What was the point of throwing that in?

Viola Davis, who is usually always good, has what should be a powerful epiphenal moment seemingly out of nowhere near the end of the film, though no normal person would have been able to glean what she did from the vague dialogue being given to her to induce this moment of clarity and understanding.

Like I said earlier though, the reveal at the end of the film (prior to the poorly conceived final conflict) which I will not spoil is admittedly powerful and does redeem the film somewhat, even if it may seem implausible.

Also, Hans Zimmer is strangely attached to this film, though very likely in name only to kick-start one of his Remote Control composers as a solo artist with a mostly bland atmospheric empty score. This is only exemplified more by a concert pianist at a conservatory performing an inexplicable 'rendition' of Radiohead for her extremely important recital.

Who writes that crap? Is the writer or director so insecure about their art that they felt they needed to choose such a hamfisted and wholly out-of-place choice to get their message across? Gross. I truly felt embarrassed watching that.

Anyway, if you don't mind slow monotonous and sometimes lecturing take on redemption and sacrifice with many great cast members and a Sandra Bullock who looks like she just recently shaved her mustache after 48 years, you'll like this film.