The Unforgivable had a limited theatrical release and will now be available for streaming Friday, Dec. 10 on Netflix.
In The Unforgivable, Sandra Bullock gives a stoic, stern performance in a grim and underwhelming tale of a woman seeking out her younger sister after being released from a 20-year prison stint for murder. At times, there's a noble glumness to the film, which is based on a 2009 British miniseries, but the journey is stilted, the outcome fizzles, and the overall choices made by the protagonist are questionable -- undercutting most of the story.
Decades previous, Bullock's Ruth was sent away for killing a kindly local sheriff when officers came to her home in an attempt to evict Ruth and separate her from her much younger sister, Katie, in the wake of their father's suicide. In prison, Ruth wrote to Katie, but the girl's adoptive parents decided it was best Katie never knew of Ruth, or the violent incident people assumed she was too young to remember. Now Ruth is out and wants to rebuild her life, including a reunion with Katie.
The Unforgivable has all the right ingredients for an effective drama -- including a lead actress notably burying her usual charm and charisma in lieu of playing a very quiet, enigmatic, and damaged character -- but it falls short of assembling anything truly worthwhile. Its ultimate "reveal" is confusing, and will likely just make you angry at the entire movie, while Bullock gives us very little to invest in as Ruth, whom she underplays to a slightly frustrating degree.
The supporting cast is full of recognizables -- from Jon Bernthal to Vincent D'Onofrio to Viola Davis -- but all of their characters feel like half a role, and none of them come with satisfying wrap ups or final check-ins. Added to this is a side story designed to turn the final 10 minutes into a thriller and it just doesn't work. Plus, said side quest connects to the big "tada!" twist, which itself feels fundamentally wrong in actual concept, so it all works to ruin the last beat of the movie, which is a moment that should feel warm and rewarding.
Very few movies can make silence work in their favor, and use terseness to amplify drama. Unfortunately, The Unforgivable isn't one of them and far too often, there are moments where more chatter would've been better. Where "if character X just said this outright, or explained this to character Y," we could have been spared entire swaths of the story. In the end, Ruth's secret is so dumb, and so loftily proud and sacrificial, that it feels unreal and unnecessary, making the movie feel unnecessary as a result.
Every choice made to (and not just by Ruth) is far more damaging to young Katie (Aisling Franciosi, in present day) than if everyone had just been truthful and on the up and up. And Katie's the golden goose here, the one the movie treats with kid gloves and who we're supposed to see through a rose-colored lens. Everything done to make sure she's protected, and presented with a better life, feels haughty and harmful.
The performances, when allowed to be, are all fine. Bullock herself is allowed a few emotional outbursts, maybe so we can be sure Ruth has a pulse, but every road here, every individual thread and character, feels unfinished. The film also tries to make a few points about how hard it is to start one's life over as a hardened felon, especially walking around with a "cop killer" moniker, but that only winds up working against it when Ruth's past fully unspools and we learn the actual breadth of her sisterly devotion.
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