The Forgiven

It’s difficult to sympathize with the gallery of wayward rogues, schemers, and drunks in The Forgiven — revelers sequestered at a desert outpost pretending to be happy as regret and hostility simmer beneath the surface.

Fortunately, this twisty morality play from British director John Michael McDonagh (Calvary) is layered with acerbic examinations of class and culture, asking tough questions of its characters regarding guilt, contrition, and privilege.

The story is set in Morocco, where affluent couple David (Ralph Fiennes) and Jo (Jessica Chastain) are speeding through the dunes at night, on the way to a weekend party at an opulent resort belonging to an old friend (Matt Smith) and his flamboyant lover (Caleb Landry Jones).

David is a stubborn alcoholic, but even when he kills a local teenage boy while driving in the middle of nowhere, he initially isn’t fazed. “This kid’s a nobody,” he coldly rationalizes. “No ID, no witnesses. So that’s that.”

As the hours pass and David’s conscience begins torturing him, everyone else seems primarily concerned with protecting their own self-interests and keeping the decadence and debauchery going, even setting off fireworks as the grieving father (Ismael Kanater) stands by to collect the corpse.

The bereaved man has one other request. Rather than financial compensation or revenge, he wants David to accompany him to his remote village to witness the burial. David reluctantly agrees at great risk, but is his journey more about comeuppance or catharsis?

That seems to matter little to Jo, who stays behind and begins flirting with a fellow party guest (Christopher Abbott) instead of worrying about her husband’s fate.

While the film stylishly immerses us in its setting, committed performances and sharply observed dialogue combine to produce some powerful character-driven moments.

McDonagh’s bilingual screenplay, based on a novel by Lawrence Osborne, spins its narrative wheels in a slower middle section. Yet as the story splinters while loyalties shift and motives are revealed, it maintains an unsettling tension.

Charting familiar territory about strangers in a strange land, The Forgiven doesn’t offer much fresh insight as a social satire. However, it adeptly clings to a shred of humanity without letting anyone off the hook.

Rated R, 117 minutes.