The Forgiven REVIEW: A compelling slow-burning drama

The Bafta-nominated writer-director, older brother of Three Billboard’s director Martin, turns to Lawrence Osborne’s best-selling 2012 novel to develop the themes of guilt and atonement explored in his earlier films Calvary and The Guard.

The film’s unusual setting is a plush Moroccan palace in the desert where a rich gay couple Richard and Dally (Matt Smith and Caleb Landry Jones) have invited their odious, privileged pals for a weekend of debauchery.

The guest list includes skirt-chasing British aristocrat Lord Swanthorne (Alex Jennings), pompous French journalist Isabelle Peret (Marie-Josee Croze) and smooth-talking American financial analyst Tom Day (Christopher Abbott).

As the festivities begin, we follow a married couple as they bicker their way across the dark desert road from Tangiers. Plastic surgeon David Henninger (Fiennes) is a “high-functioning alcoholic” who is spouting drunken diatribes to his bored younger wife Jo (Jessica Chastain) when a young boy steps out into the road to try and sell them fossils.

It’s dark but David is driving too fast, he’s drunk, and isn’t looking at the road.

So when he hits and kills the boy, his first and perhaps only thought is to stay out of prison. The Henningers arrive late at the party, claiming the boy’s death was an accident.

Richard calls the police, who don’t seem overly interested in the death of “a nobody”. But the next day, the party is interrupted by three scary-looking locals.

The oldest claims to be the boy’s father and insists David accompany him to his village to pay his respects at the funeral. “He could be f****** Isis,” shouts the half-cut Englishman.

But after some gentle persuasion, David agrees to honour the local customs to make sure he avoids further scrutiny from the police.

From here, the film splits into strands as the privileged partygoers get wasted and David finds himself on a winding road to redemption.

The second strand is the most compelling, but a lack of suspense makes this ponderous drama feel a lot longer than its two-hour running time.