The Unforgivable - Movie Review

After spending twenty years in prison for killing a police officer Ruth Slater is finally being released. Now she just wants to start over and find her sister, Katherine. But Katherine's foster parents are blocking the reunion and the police officer's sons are planning their revenge.

The Unforgivable is a gritty and dark story of loss and hardship. It is probably one of Sandra Bullock's most real and down to earth serious roles. It does not bring any fun light-hearted comedic moments to make the constant sad tone of movie easier to digest. But it does use a loose story telling form with lots of jumps to pace the movie and many short flashbacks to show the trauma the characters are dealing with and give small twists to the story. Which all in all can be a little confusing; it is easy to miss key details of the story and mix up some of the characters.

The title of the movie is kind of mismatched. The more we dive into the story and explore it the more we learn that most of the characters and their actions are actually forgivable. It could be a comment on how society views convicts. A better title would have been "The Unforgiving" as the movie is about how the American society is an unforgiving and un-forgetting entity that will forever hold your crimes and history over your head. And how everybody is wallowing in their own misery and self-pity that no one have time to hear your story and forgive you. And maybe we should be more forgiving as grunges can lead us down dark and destructive paths which is also one of the themes in this story.

I am going to give this movie three and a half stars. I like the story; it got a powerful message. And I like the general vibe of the movie. Real, dark and gritty is speaking to me. But I think the storytelling could have been tightened up and the emotional depth of living in this cruel world and how hard it is for a convict to find their way back into society again could have been explored more. The characters could also have been more nuanced; it is only a couple of hours since I watched the movie and I find it difficult to remember the characters apart. Also since Ruth went to prison when Katherine was five and she came back twenty years later, I do not understand why the lawyer contacts the foster parents. Katherine is a grown woman at the age of twenty-five at this point of the movie and she can make her own choices.