THE UNFORGIVABLE : Tuesday 30th November 2021.

'THE UNFORGIVABLE' which I saw at my local multiplex earlier this week is an M Rated American and German Co-Produced film Directed by Nora Fingscheidt following 2019's 'System Crasher' which picked up thirty-three wins and another twenty-five nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. This film is based on the 2009 British three-part mini-series 'Unforgiven' by Sally Wainwright, and is Co-Produced by the films star Sandra Bullock and Veronica Ferres. The film went on a limited release from last week before streaming on Netflix from 10th December, and has generated mostly average Reviews.

The film opens up with Ruth Slater (Sandra Bullock) being given back her belongings and the sum of US$40 upon her release from prison after serving the bulk of her twenty year sentence for the shooting murder of Policeman Mac Whelan (W. Earl Brown) at her home on the outskirts of Seattle, when he arrived to enforce her eviction from her childhood home. She is collected from the prison gates by her parole officer Vincent Cross (Rob Morgan) and deposited at a hostel somewhere near Chinatown where she has to share a room with three other women. Whilst inside, she studied carpentry and has certificates to prove it, and has lined up work on a building site. Cross gives Slater a card from a fish processing plant and a guaranteed job there should things not work out. Needless to say, they don't work out, and so she ends up gutting, boning and prepping salmon to earn a crust and assimilate back into society. She has to report back to Cross every Tuesday at 11:00am, without fail. 

Slater, wants to connect with her much younger sister Katie (Aisling Franciosi) who was only five years of age when she was sent to prison, and has not heard from or seen in the past almost twenty years, despite writing hundreds of letters over the years. Katie seemingly has very little memory of her older sister other than sudden flashbacks of a woman cradling her in her arms. Katie now lives with her adoptive parents Michael and Rachel Malcolm (Richard Thomas and Linda Emond respectively) and their own daughter Emily (Emma Nelson), and has grown to be piano playing prodigy. 

Slater visits a library and goes on-line in an attempt to track down her sister. She decides to visit her old house and the scene of the crime to find that it has been recently purchased and upgraded by John and Liz Ingram (Vincent D'Onofrio and Viola Davis respectively) who now live there with their two teenage sons. Slater is seen standing in the grounds looking at the property by Liz who calls to John to go and investigate who the mystery woman is. Slater tells John that she once worked on the property, and John invites her in to have a look around. As she is about to leave, John offers her a lift to the bus station. In the car they talk and John believes that something is not quite right with Slater. She comes clean and tells him that she in fact lived in the property and has been in 'the system' for the last twenty years and is trying to track down her sister. It turns out that John is a corporate lawyer, and he gives her his business card with an offer to help.

While all this is going on, the two now adult sons of the murdered Policeman, Keith Whelan (Tom Guiry) and Steve Whelan (Will Pullen) are none too pleased that Slater is out and free. Keith wants to exact his revenge on Slater but Steve is dead set against the notion saying that he has a job, a life, a wife and a young child to consider. 

Slater contacts John Ingram and asks for his help in contacting Katie via her parents, and a meeting is set up between the four. Needless to say that meeting doesn't end well with the Malcolm's saying what good would it possibly serve Katie to be reunited with her sister, and Slater going off the rails at the prospect of them standing between Katie and her being reunited after all this time. 

In the meantime, Slater has got a carpenters job at a Chapel that is being converted by a NGO into a Community Hall for the homeless, as well as keeping down her job at the fish processing plant. At the plant she has developed a close relationship with fellow fish gutter Blake (Jon Bernthal), to whom she comes clean one day over a coffee and a plate of pancakes about her prison time and the fact that it was for murder. He is taken aback and distances himself from her, and later blabs about it to one of his fellow co-workers who then beats up Slater in the workplace for being a cop killer. Blake later comes clean telling her that he too is an ex-convict and was released eighteen months ago, and apologises. 

Meanwhile, Liz has learned of Slater's history and is furious at John for keeping this vital piece of news from her. Emily also overheard her parents talking about the pending meeting with Slater and John, and one day when the house is empty rummages through the basement looking for clues. She comes across boxes of the letters written by Slater to Katie which were never given to Katie. One such letter written most recently, contains Slater's mobile phone number. Emily calls Slater and arranges a meeting in a public place. Emily and Slater connect and after a brief chat, Emily tells her that she can see Katie at 4:00pm that afternoon at a piano recital. They part ways and little do the pair know that Steve Whelan is following Emily. Slater meanwhile tries to contact John Ingram to determine if she is legally allowed to visit the concert hall where Katie is playing later that afternoon, but she is told by his office that he is out traveling for the week on business. Slater visits their home again to try and track down John, and is met by Liz who promptly orders Slater off the property and reaffirms that John is away on business. The pair exchange words with Slater proclaiming that Katie was only five years old, and Liz having an 'oh shit' moment! 

Liz drives Slater to the concert hall in time for the 4:00pm recital, when Slater receives a call from Steve Whelan saying that he has Katie, with the sounds of muffled screams in the background. He orders Slater to come over immediately to his place of work. Liz drives Slater there and upon entering the designated building finds Emily tied and bound on the floor with Steve Whelan holding a gun to her head. Meanwhile, Katie has begun her piano recital with her parents looking on in the audience. 

Whelan orders Slater to lay down on the ground and then points the gun at her, saying that he is going to take her life away just as she took his fathers. However, in the final analysis, Whelan can't  go through with his revenge plan, and falls to the ground sobbing. Slater gets up, frees Emily and the pair leave just as the Police arrive, ordering Slater to get down on the ground. She is handcuffed, and Whelan is seen being walked out of the building by two Police Officers also handcuffed. A short time later Cross arrives and states his claim to his parolee and says that unless they intend to charge Slater then she is free to go, and she is. 

Walking back to his car, Michael, Rachel and Katie are by Emily's side as she is being tended to by an Ambulance crew. Slater observes this, Katie turns and the sisters make eye contact. Katie walks up to Slater, and the pair embrace. 

Throughout most of the almost two hour run time, Sandra Bullock's Ruth Slater parades around on screen with a solemn, sullen and scowl faced expression, only twice, from memory, barely breaking into what at best can be described as a smile. Here she is just about as far removed from her 'Miss Congeniality' character as you could imagine, and Viola Davis is completely wasted in the few meagre scenes she is afforded. The plot here clearly worked better as a three-part TV mini-series than it does in a feature length film with the series running for an extra twenty-five minutes in which to flesh out more character development, more of the back story and more of the several plot contrivances which in this film are hurried, all too fleeting, bordering on the nonsensical and with too many questions left unanswered by the time the end credits roll. On the plus side, Bullock, despite her dour expression throughout most of the film, here again proves her acting chops with more dramatic roles as she goes unkempt, sans make-up and portraying a truly broken character seeking redemption. 

'The Unforgivable' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.  

-Steve, at Odeon Online-